September 22, 2009, Tuesday
Paris, France
The end is here. We have arrived in Paris and have packed everything we can pack. The papers are out and ready for us to take to the airport so we can return the car and get on the plane for home. Now it is just a waiting game and that is HARD!!! I’m SO excited about finally going home that I can hardly stand it!! Don is excited too. Now that the trip is done, we just want to get HOME!!
It was a good trip although not as fascinating as some of our trips have been. We both agree that we needed to go to Scandinavia in order to finish our European adventure. Now we are trying to decide where next!!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Amsterdam, Netherlands
September 21, 2009, Monday
Amsterdam, Netherlands
It was a quiet and comfortable ride in today. This morning it was VERY foggy and the fog lasted until almost noon, when it finally lifted. The traffic wasn’t too bad and we were able to drive without interruption except for the road construction. It is interesting how they slow traffic for their construction over here. Without fail, they make a significant change in the road pattern. You will be driving on a freeway and they will warn you that construction is ahead and then they will have cones out that make you change into first a lane to the right and then a lane to the right. This “S” makes you slow WAY down and then comes the construction. It is quite effective and clearly is a simple thing to accomplish as they simply use those rubber cones to reconfigure the traffic flow. We could learn something from this, I think.
We are in our favorite hotel tonight, in Amsterdam. Once again we missed the alleyway that you need to take to get here and so once again we drove the wrong way down the one way street to arrive. The hotel manager was in the parking lot as we arrived from the wrong direction and he was highly amused. He said it was no problem because there was rarely traffic on the street so……. Isn’t that lucky?? I keep my fingers crossed that our good luck holds. Only two more days and we are back in familiar territory!!
Amsterdam, Netherlands
It was a quiet and comfortable ride in today. This morning it was VERY foggy and the fog lasted until almost noon, when it finally lifted. The traffic wasn’t too bad and we were able to drive without interruption except for the road construction. It is interesting how they slow traffic for their construction over here. Without fail, they make a significant change in the road pattern. You will be driving on a freeway and they will warn you that construction is ahead and then they will have cones out that make you change into first a lane to the right and then a lane to the right. This “S” makes you slow WAY down and then comes the construction. It is quite effective and clearly is a simple thing to accomplish as they simply use those rubber cones to reconfigure the traffic flow. We could learn something from this, I think.
We are in our favorite hotel tonight, in Amsterdam. Once again we missed the alleyway that you need to take to get here and so once again we drove the wrong way down the one way street to arrive. The hotel manager was in the parking lot as we arrived from the wrong direction and he was highly amused. He said it was no problem because there was rarely traffic on the street so……. Isn’t that lucky?? I keep my fingers crossed that our good luck holds. Only two more days and we are back in familiar territory!!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Hamburg, Germany
September 20, 2009, Sunday
Hamburg, Germany
Another day, another ferry ride!! But now we are in mainland Europe and we won’t be on anymore ferries. Both of us are anxious to get back home.
I HATE the German freeways. EVERYBODY drives like they have lead feet and they are just maniacal. Then Don seems to feel like HE has to keep up ad the next thing I know, I look over at the speedometer and it reads 130. That’s just too damned fast and I like speed!! Of course, if I were driving I would feel differently but…….
We were tooling along today at about 110 and a guy on a motorcycle passed us like we were standing still. Both of us were awed and frightened by him. We said that this guy was going the fastest of anybody we had seen on the whole trip.
We are staying in a familiar hotel tonight. It is the same one I booked for us on the way up to Scandinavia, so we know just what to expect. It is comfortable and has a restaurant in house, so we are in for the night.
Hamburg, Germany
Another day, another ferry ride!! But now we are in mainland Europe and we won’t be on anymore ferries. Both of us are anxious to get back home.
I HATE the German freeways. EVERYBODY drives like they have lead feet and they are just maniacal. Then Don seems to feel like HE has to keep up ad the next thing I know, I look over at the speedometer and it reads 130. That’s just too damned fast and I like speed!! Of course, if I were driving I would feel differently but…….
We were tooling along today at about 110 and a guy on a motorcycle passed us like we were standing still. Both of us were awed and frightened by him. We said that this guy was going the fastest of anybody we had seen on the whole trip.
We are staying in a familiar hotel tonight. It is the same one I booked for us on the way up to Scandinavia, so we know just what to expect. It is comfortable and has a restaurant in house, so we are in for the night.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Copenhagen, Denmark
September 19, 2009, Saturday
Copenhagen
What a day!! We must have gone the wrong way on one way streets three or four times and once we stopped on the bike lane and screwed up all the cyclists, who were not afraid to show their anger!! Thank goodness we are finally in our hotel and hopefully safe for another day!! This was definitely not a stellar day of driving.
The weather is beyond beautiful and it seems a shame to be stuck in the car driving in such gorgeous weather! We had planned to walk over to Tivoli Gardens to check it out when we came back to Copenhagen but I think that may have to wait for another time. Don is so stressed out that he just wants to sit and read and I’m right there with him!!!
Copenhagen
What a day!! We must have gone the wrong way on one way streets three or four times and once we stopped on the bike lane and screwed up all the cyclists, who were not afraid to show their anger!! Thank goodness we are finally in our hotel and hopefully safe for another day!! This was definitely not a stellar day of driving.
The weather is beyond beautiful and it seems a shame to be stuck in the car driving in such gorgeous weather! We had planned to walk over to Tivoli Gardens to check it out when we came back to Copenhagen but I think that may have to wait for another time. Don is so stressed out that he just wants to sit and read and I’m right there with him!!!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Oslo, Norway and Lerum, Sweden
September 17 and 18, 2009
Oslo, Norway and Lerum, Sweden
I got so bumfuzzled yesterday that I totally forgot to do the blog!! We started out at a reasonable hour to get to the airport and we met some people at breakfast that were also going to the airport, so we all got together and climbed in a cab and went out together. I tried to get my tax free refund at the airport but they said I needed to wait until I get to Paris. When we tried to check in to the plane, we discovered that DON had made the plane reservations to the “second” airport in Oslo, which was THREE hours outside the city!! Of course, they were no change tickets so we had to decide whether to go to the far away airport and hope for good transportation into the city proper or whether to junk the tickets and buy new ones. We opted to use the tickets and take our chances. Since the airport is listed as being an Oslo airport, I figured that they would NEVER leave us stranded out in the boonies. Well, they didn’t. There were two buses at the airport that met our plane and we could take one bus to the train station to train into Oslo or we could take the other bus directly into Oslo. Since the bus to Oslo was leaving immediately and the train wasn’t leaving for another hour, we took the bus and it dumped us right in the middle of the city and we were able to hop on a tram and get delivered to a stop right near our hotel. But it was a LONG day and I was just plain glad to get settled in to our room.
We opted for a pizza for dinner and it was rather good. There was a funny little restaurant right up the street from our hotel that we had passed every day when we were in Oslo before and we decided to give it a try. You walk down about 6 steps to get into the place and it wasn’t any bigger than a minute!! They had expanded the space by building tiers inside and you climbed up to various heights to sit on these tiers. The tables were about the size of ironing boards and were shaped like an ironing board, tapered at one end!! The proprietor was hand making the pizzas and they were turning people away left and right!! After we ate we dumped all our suitcases and rearranged everything. We have definitely over purchased and I’m not at all sure how we are going to get all this stuff home but………. LOL
Then we got up early today and wanted to do some last minute sight seeing. We drove over to the Viking Museum and looked at the ships that they’ve unearthed and those darned things are REALLY impressive. They are massive and ornate and it is hard to believe that they were created over 2000 years ago. Then we wanted to see a stave church before we left Scandinavia and so we went to the Norwegian Folk Museum and toured around there. They have a perfectly lovely stave church and Don was suitably impressed!!
The rest of the day was spent driving and we got to our hotel in Lerum at 5pm.
Oslo, Norway and Lerum, Sweden
I got so bumfuzzled yesterday that I totally forgot to do the blog!! We started out at a reasonable hour to get to the airport and we met some people at breakfast that were also going to the airport, so we all got together and climbed in a cab and went out together. I tried to get my tax free refund at the airport but they said I needed to wait until I get to Paris. When we tried to check in to the plane, we discovered that DON had made the plane reservations to the “second” airport in Oslo, which was THREE hours outside the city!! Of course, they were no change tickets so we had to decide whether to go to the far away airport and hope for good transportation into the city proper or whether to junk the tickets and buy new ones. We opted to use the tickets and take our chances. Since the airport is listed as being an Oslo airport, I figured that they would NEVER leave us stranded out in the boonies. Well, they didn’t. There were two buses at the airport that met our plane and we could take one bus to the train station to train into Oslo or we could take the other bus directly into Oslo. Since the bus to Oslo was leaving immediately and the train wasn’t leaving for another hour, we took the bus and it dumped us right in the middle of the city and we were able to hop on a tram and get delivered to a stop right near our hotel. But it was a LONG day and I was just plain glad to get settled in to our room.
We opted for a pizza for dinner and it was rather good. There was a funny little restaurant right up the street from our hotel that we had passed every day when we were in Oslo before and we decided to give it a try. You walk down about 6 steps to get into the place and it wasn’t any bigger than a minute!! They had expanded the space by building tiers inside and you climbed up to various heights to sit on these tiers. The tables were about the size of ironing boards and were shaped like an ironing board, tapered at one end!! The proprietor was hand making the pizzas and they were turning people away left and right!! After we ate we dumped all our suitcases and rearranged everything. We have definitely over purchased and I’m not at all sure how we are going to get all this stuff home but………. LOL
Then we got up early today and wanted to do some last minute sight seeing. We drove over to the Viking Museum and looked at the ships that they’ve unearthed and those darned things are REALLY impressive. They are massive and ornate and it is hard to believe that they were created over 2000 years ago. Then we wanted to see a stave church before we left Scandinavia and so we went to the Norwegian Folk Museum and toured around there. They have a perfectly lovely stave church and Don was suitably impressed!!
The rest of the day was spent driving and we got to our hotel in Lerum at 5pm.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Bergen, Norway
September 16, 2009, Wednesday
Bergen, Norway
We’ve had a super day in Bergen. It has rained off and on all day but that didn’t deter us in the least. Our hotel is only a ten minute walk from the absolute heart of town and we got going early and have wandered and shopped and been sightseeing all day long. We are back now and both of us are pooped but feel that we have “done” Bergen. Wow, has it ever grown since I was last here (30+ years ago). The fish market is still a smelly place but isn’t as offensive to me as it was way back when!!
We found some really good shopping here and availed ourselves of the best prices we’ve seen in a while!! And the goods were of good quality, so that is a plus. We are both delighted to be off the ship and back on stable ground!
I have been seeing shrimp sandwiches and they have looked good but I just haven’t had the opportunity to try them until last night. We went into our hotel’s restaurant and the menu looked absolutely atrocious. I was ready to walk out but we had passed some of these yummy looking shrimp sandwiches on the way in to the restaurant. They were on a tray ready to be served to a group in a meeting hall. So I asked the waiter if we could have those instead of food off the menu and guess what!! He got us each a couple of them and they were just as good as I had imagined. AND the bonus is that now I’ve had shrimp sandwiches!! We haven’t decided what we are going to do for dinner tonight as the menu is the same at our hotel and there aren’t any restaurants near by that we’ve seen. About the only choices around here are fish or fish!! This is a fishy town and they seem to live on fish. Of course, I wouldn’t care if I never had a fish ever, so this isn’t my favorite kind of place to find food.
Tomorrow we officially start to come home. We will fly out to Oslo and then start driving back towards Paris. In some ways I’m REALLY glad to be going home but in other ways this has been a marvelous trip and I’m sorry to see it end.
Bergen, Norway
We’ve had a super day in Bergen. It has rained off and on all day but that didn’t deter us in the least. Our hotel is only a ten minute walk from the absolute heart of town and we got going early and have wandered and shopped and been sightseeing all day long. We are back now and both of us are pooped but feel that we have “done” Bergen. Wow, has it ever grown since I was last here (30+ years ago). The fish market is still a smelly place but isn’t as offensive to me as it was way back when!!
We found some really good shopping here and availed ourselves of the best prices we’ve seen in a while!! And the goods were of good quality, so that is a plus. We are both delighted to be off the ship and back on stable ground!
I have been seeing shrimp sandwiches and they have looked good but I just haven’t had the opportunity to try them until last night. We went into our hotel’s restaurant and the menu looked absolutely atrocious. I was ready to walk out but we had passed some of these yummy looking shrimp sandwiches on the way in to the restaurant. They were on a tray ready to be served to a group in a meeting hall. So I asked the waiter if we could have those instead of food off the menu and guess what!! He got us each a couple of them and they were just as good as I had imagined. AND the bonus is that now I’ve had shrimp sandwiches!! We haven’t decided what we are going to do for dinner tonight as the menu is the same at our hotel and there aren’t any restaurants near by that we’ve seen. About the only choices around here are fish or fish!! This is a fishy town and they seem to live on fish. Of course, I wouldn’t care if I never had a fish ever, so this isn’t my favorite kind of place to find food.
Tomorrow we officially start to come home. We will fly out to Oslo and then start driving back towards Paris. In some ways I’m REALLY glad to be going home but in other ways this has been a marvelous trip and I’m sorry to see it end.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Day 6 M/S Polarlys
September 15, 2009, Tuesday
Day 6 M/S Polarlys
We are headed for Bergen and will disembark at about 2;30 pm today. We’ve signed up for a bus to take us directly to our hotel and since it will be delivering other people from the ship, I am betting that we won’t get to the hotel until 4 or after.
The scenery is beautiful, hundreds and hundreds of small islands with houses here and there. No large villages but some of the islands are large enough to have small villages.
Don has declared that Finns wear the shortest skirts, Norwegian women have the largest butts and none of the Scandinavians are particularly big busted! God only knows what prompted this declaration at lunch today but that is his assessment of the women over here!! I, on the other hand, feel that all throughout Scandinavia, I’ve seen busts hanging out of low cut shirts and blouses until there were times I held my breathe waiting for them to completely fall out!! Apparently he and I are not looking at the same women!! LOL
The internet coverage on this ship is sketchy, at best and I haven’t been able to access the web for a couple of days. I’ll try again in a few minutes. Well, it didn’t work and now we are in the hotel in Bergen. This wifi is MUCH improved although somebody has sent me some email that is so loaded with graphics that it is taking FOREVER to receive and it is blocking all the rest of my email. How annoying!! I may actually have to go directly to my email and get it a different way. Ick! Ah well. Better to have email than not have email!!
Day 6 M/S Polarlys
We are headed for Bergen and will disembark at about 2;30 pm today. We’ve signed up for a bus to take us directly to our hotel and since it will be delivering other people from the ship, I am betting that we won’t get to the hotel until 4 or after.
The scenery is beautiful, hundreds and hundreds of small islands with houses here and there. No large villages but some of the islands are large enough to have small villages.
Don has declared that Finns wear the shortest skirts, Norwegian women have the largest butts and none of the Scandinavians are particularly big busted! God only knows what prompted this declaration at lunch today but that is his assessment of the women over here!! I, on the other hand, feel that all throughout Scandinavia, I’ve seen busts hanging out of low cut shirts and blouses until there were times I held my breathe waiting for them to completely fall out!! Apparently he and I are not looking at the same women!! LOL
The internet coverage on this ship is sketchy, at best and I haven’t been able to access the web for a couple of days. I’ll try again in a few minutes. Well, it didn’t work and now we are in the hotel in Bergen. This wifi is MUCH improved although somebody has sent me some email that is so loaded with graphics that it is taking FOREVER to receive and it is blocking all the rest of my email. How annoying!! I may actually have to go directly to my email and get it a different way. Ick! Ah well. Better to have email than not have email!!
Day 5 M/S Polarlys
September 14, 2009, Monday
Day 5 M/S Polarlys
We have crossed the Arctic Circle and are now below that latitude. We’ve each been given a certificate that says we’ve crossed the Arctic Circle. At least I think that is what it says, as it is in Norwegian!! The weather today is the best it has been since we left Kirkenes. We awoke in Trondheim this morning but didn’t do anything in the city. If we were going on this trip again, I would schedule a tour of Trondheim, because it is fairly large and has some things that might be nice to see. We however, felt that sleeping in until a decent hour was more important than touring another small Norwegian town!!
I am looking forward to getting to Bergen and getting off this ship. We crossed some open sea last night and once again we were bobbing around like a cork on the open sea. I was just sure that I was going to end up on the floor, having been thrown from my bed but somehow I managed to stay in bed. The really good news is that I didn’t get the seasickness again! Don just slept through the whole pitching and rolling business and is happy as a clam.
We were speaking with a German at lunch today and he said that Norwegians are really very wealthy people. He said that they have HUGE energy supplies and that the country has set up a fund for the people where the wealth is distributed to the people every year. Sounds to me just like what has happened in Alaska. He also said that Europeans generally do not like the wind chargers that we have seen all over Europe because they feel that the wind mills are blights on the landscape!! I guess they would prefer polluted air!
Day 5 M/S Polarlys
We have crossed the Arctic Circle and are now below that latitude. We’ve each been given a certificate that says we’ve crossed the Arctic Circle. At least I think that is what it says, as it is in Norwegian!! The weather today is the best it has been since we left Kirkenes. We awoke in Trondheim this morning but didn’t do anything in the city. If we were going on this trip again, I would schedule a tour of Trondheim, because it is fairly large and has some things that might be nice to see. We however, felt that sleeping in until a decent hour was more important than touring another small Norwegian town!!
I am looking forward to getting to Bergen and getting off this ship. We crossed some open sea last night and once again we were bobbing around like a cork on the open sea. I was just sure that I was going to end up on the floor, having been thrown from my bed but somehow I managed to stay in bed. The really good news is that I didn’t get the seasickness again! Don just slept through the whole pitching and rolling business and is happy as a clam.
We were speaking with a German at lunch today and he said that Norwegians are really very wealthy people. He said that they have HUGE energy supplies and that the country has set up a fund for the people where the wealth is distributed to the people every year. Sounds to me just like what has happened in Alaska. He also said that Europeans generally do not like the wind chargers that we have seen all over Europe because they feel that the wind mills are blights on the landscape!! I guess they would prefer polluted air!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Day 4 M/S Polarlys
September 13, 2009, Sunday
M/S Polarlys
The day started sunny and bright but by the time we got in to our first port of call where we actually had time to wander around, it was blowing and rainy. Once again we left our umbrella on the ship and we got wet and soggy. Don managed to go almost 3 blocks today before pitching a fit and turning back to the ship. Everybody aboard this ship is desperate for something to do to keep them occupied. After you’ve looked at a thousand little islands with lots of rocks and hills, you get immune to the scenery and want something else. Both of us have read three books apiece.
ABOUT THE FOOD
The food aboard this ship is really very good and very attractive although it isn’t exactly mainstream American food. For example, we’ve had creamed parsnip soup, cream of spinach soup, reindeer meat, every imaginable preparation of fish (smoked, dried, creamed, pickled, etc.), caviar, and my breakfast staple, ham and cheese sandwiches. They are heavy into fruits and vegetables but the way they are prepared makes them unrecognizable and only by taste can you tell what you are eating. All of us are eating way too much, not only because it tastes good but also because we are bored and eating meals are major events in our days!!
DON’S SHOES
I packed most of Don’s clothing for this trip but he packed his own shoes and he made a doozy of a choice. Somewhere in the bowels of his closet he has had these things hidden away and for some reason he decided to drag them out for this trip. God only knows where he acquired them but they are quite “special” (and I mean that in the most unkind way possible). They look like they are made of plastic and the color is the color of meconium (baby poop). And they SQUEAK. Everywhere we go he squeaks and it is REALLY hard to ignore. Now you would think that this would be an embarrassment to him but not a chance!! He can’t hear them and even when I tell him that he is squeaking, he doesn’t care!! I suggested that we could buy him a “nice” pair of shoes over here and he looked at me like I was crazy. Why would he need a different pair of shoes?? These shoes are just fine and he has worn them every single day. The day we get home they are going to disappear, never to be seen again!!
M/S Polarlys
The day started sunny and bright but by the time we got in to our first port of call where we actually had time to wander around, it was blowing and rainy. Once again we left our umbrella on the ship and we got wet and soggy. Don managed to go almost 3 blocks today before pitching a fit and turning back to the ship. Everybody aboard this ship is desperate for something to do to keep them occupied. After you’ve looked at a thousand little islands with lots of rocks and hills, you get immune to the scenery and want something else. Both of us have read three books apiece.
ABOUT THE FOOD
The food aboard this ship is really very good and very attractive although it isn’t exactly mainstream American food. For example, we’ve had creamed parsnip soup, cream of spinach soup, reindeer meat, every imaginable preparation of fish (smoked, dried, creamed, pickled, etc.), caviar, and my breakfast staple, ham and cheese sandwiches. They are heavy into fruits and vegetables but the way they are prepared makes them unrecognizable and only by taste can you tell what you are eating. All of us are eating way too much, not only because it tastes good but also because we are bored and eating meals are major events in our days!!
DON’S SHOES
I packed most of Don’s clothing for this trip but he packed his own shoes and he made a doozy of a choice. Somewhere in the bowels of his closet he has had these things hidden away and for some reason he decided to drag them out for this trip. God only knows where he acquired them but they are quite “special” (and I mean that in the most unkind way possible). They look like they are made of plastic and the color is the color of meconium (baby poop). And they SQUEAK. Everywhere we go he squeaks and it is REALLY hard to ignore. Now you would think that this would be an embarrassment to him but not a chance!! He can’t hear them and even when I tell him that he is squeaking, he doesn’t care!! I suggested that we could buy him a “nice” pair of shoes over here and he looked at me like I was crazy. Why would he need a different pair of shoes?? These shoes are just fine and he has worn them every single day. The day we get home they are going to disappear, never to be seen again!!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Day 3 M/S Polarlys
September 12, 2009, Saturday
M/S Polarlys
We continue on our southward journey and the scenery is beautiful but desolate. This morning I awoke and announced that I am now ready to come home. It is taking less and less time for me be away before I’m ready to return!! At least today I am finally feeling like a human being and am no longer even a little bit seasick.
We’ve made several more stops and we have disembarked whenever there was even 15 minutes in port. It feels really good to get out and wiggle around and breathe fresh air. At one port this morning it was raining and once again we left the umbrella on board, so we were wandering around getting soaked!! How dumb are we??
I’m wearing my new Norwegian sweater today and for the first time since I started this cruise, I’m warm…..actually too warm!! I told Don that I need to sit in the windows so I don’t get over heated in this sweater!!
One of the ships’ engineers came in to our room last night to fix our thermostat so maybe we could get some heat. We both think that maybe he did some good but it is still so chilly in our room that we aren’t sure! At 8am this morning they announced over the speaker that it is 11 degrees (52 F) and apparently they made the announcement because it is so hot outside today!!
Our dinner table has been changed and we had a delightful dinner last night with mostly folks from America, so we could speak English and actually have a conversation. We were served reindeer as an appetizer. It reminded me of proscuitto…..very salty and rather dry and chewy. We are regularly being given caviar (ick!) and Brie (yum!). So some things that are expensive at home are just very common place here and other things, actually most other things, are expensive over here. We had a Swede at our table last night and she was whining about how expensive things were in Norway as compared to Sweden. She’d die if she had come from the US!!! Today we stopped in a co-op and priced a ho-hum, regular man’s shirt at $55 and two plain white tee shirts at almost $30 for the two pack. YIKES!!
Things have definitely picked up today. We’ve had several stops where we could get off and wander around and the scenery is improving. We are seeing lots of waterfalls and the ship has taken us into a small fiord that was quite spectacular. We also are seeing sea eagles and they are interesting.
Must try to get this posted or it won’t get done today!!
M/S Polarlys
We continue on our southward journey and the scenery is beautiful but desolate. This morning I awoke and announced that I am now ready to come home. It is taking less and less time for me be away before I’m ready to return!! At least today I am finally feeling like a human being and am no longer even a little bit seasick.
We’ve made several more stops and we have disembarked whenever there was even 15 minutes in port. It feels really good to get out and wiggle around and breathe fresh air. At one port this morning it was raining and once again we left the umbrella on board, so we were wandering around getting soaked!! How dumb are we??
I’m wearing my new Norwegian sweater today and for the first time since I started this cruise, I’m warm…..actually too warm!! I told Don that I need to sit in the windows so I don’t get over heated in this sweater!!
One of the ships’ engineers came in to our room last night to fix our thermostat so maybe we could get some heat. We both think that maybe he did some good but it is still so chilly in our room that we aren’t sure! At 8am this morning they announced over the speaker that it is 11 degrees (52 F) and apparently they made the announcement because it is so hot outside today!!
Our dinner table has been changed and we had a delightful dinner last night with mostly folks from America, so we could speak English and actually have a conversation. We were served reindeer as an appetizer. It reminded me of proscuitto…..very salty and rather dry and chewy. We are regularly being given caviar (ick!) and Brie (yum!). So some things that are expensive at home are just very common place here and other things, actually most other things, are expensive over here. We had a Swede at our table last night and she was whining about how expensive things were in Norway as compared to Sweden. She’d die if she had come from the US!!! Today we stopped in a co-op and priced a ho-hum, regular man’s shirt at $55 and two plain white tee shirts at almost $30 for the two pack. YIKES!!
Things have definitely picked up today. We’ve had several stops where we could get off and wander around and the scenery is improving. We are seeing lots of waterfalls and the ship has taken us into a small fiord that was quite spectacular. We also are seeing sea eagles and they are interesting.
Must try to get this posted or it won’t get done today!!
More September 11
September 11, 2009, Friday
M/S Polarlys
We have a perfectly wonderful day to visit the northernmost city in the world and I managed to find a T-Shirt that was only $25!!! Most were $40+ and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for a tee!! We also found a beautiful Norwegian sweater and since it is the end of the tourist season, it was less than half price!! Definitely my kind of deal!!
The territory that we are seeing reminds me very much of Antarctica rather than of Alaska. When we were in northern Alaska, there were no trees or vegetation of any kind—just rocks and dirt. Here there is grass and some shrubs, although there are no real trees. The citizenry is civilized and is not primarily Inuit or some northern tribe but is clearly Norwegian. Their cities are small but have paved roads and buses and a variety of stores. As we cruise along, most of what we are seeing is desolate, rocky, hilly islands with few inhabitants. But the hills are green and there are a few spots of snow that has still not melted. I thought there would be waterfalls all over the place but have yet to spot a single one!!
This ship is just plain COLD. I’m sitting in our cabin wrapped in a wool blanket over my long sleeved shirt and sweater!! Most of the passengers are wearing sweaters and many are wearing their coats! When we were in Hammerfest, the locals were wandering around in short sleeved tees and were apparently comfortable as could be which shows you that a comfortable temperature is in the mind of each person!! To these folks, this is summer and so they are warm in 50 degree temperatures but we have just come from 70-80 degree weather and 50 degrees is cold!!
To say that we are bored is an understatement. There is just NOTHING to do and the sightseeing is pretty much zero. I was so sure that this was going to be the highlight of our trip and it is turning into a waste of time…..a COLD waste of time!! It is pretty bad when the whole day long you are counting the minutes until the next meal!! And after dinner tonight I will be counting the minutes until it is time to go to sleep!! Don is spending his time napping, so he will be cruising all night tonight!
M/S Polarlys
We have a perfectly wonderful day to visit the northernmost city in the world and I managed to find a T-Shirt that was only $25!!! Most were $40+ and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for a tee!! We also found a beautiful Norwegian sweater and since it is the end of the tourist season, it was less than half price!! Definitely my kind of deal!!
The territory that we are seeing reminds me very much of Antarctica rather than of Alaska. When we were in northern Alaska, there were no trees or vegetation of any kind—just rocks and dirt. Here there is grass and some shrubs, although there are no real trees. The citizenry is civilized and is not primarily Inuit or some northern tribe but is clearly Norwegian. Their cities are small but have paved roads and buses and a variety of stores. As we cruise along, most of what we are seeing is desolate, rocky, hilly islands with few inhabitants. But the hills are green and there are a few spots of snow that has still not melted. I thought there would be waterfalls all over the place but have yet to spot a single one!!
This ship is just plain COLD. I’m sitting in our cabin wrapped in a wool blanket over my long sleeved shirt and sweater!! Most of the passengers are wearing sweaters and many are wearing their coats! When we were in Hammerfest, the locals were wandering around in short sleeved tees and were apparently comfortable as could be which shows you that a comfortable temperature is in the mind of each person!! To these folks, this is summer and so they are warm in 50 degree temperatures but we have just come from 70-80 degree weather and 50 degrees is cold!!
To say that we are bored is an understatement. There is just NOTHING to do and the sightseeing is pretty much zero. I was so sure that this was going to be the highlight of our trip and it is turning into a waste of time…..a COLD waste of time!! It is pretty bad when the whole day long you are counting the minutes until the next meal!! And after dinner tonight I will be counting the minutes until it is time to go to sleep!! Don is spending his time napping, so he will be cruising all night tonight!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Day 2 M/S Polarlys
September 11, 2009, Friday
M/S Polarlys
The day has dawned and it is beautiful. We have already made 6 or seven stops along our route and I slept through most of them. Today I’m glad I’m alive!! Yesterday I just wanted somebody to take me out and shoot me because I was so miserable but the seasickness has passed. I now have a whole new level of sympathy for folks who suffer from seasickness. What a helpless feeling!! Ah well.
We are settling in to ship life. It is such a tiny ship and they have no planned activities at all. The big activity is to wait for the next port of call!! Breakfast this morning was a typical Scandinavian breakfast. Lots of weird fishy dishes, sliced ham, sliced cheese and breads of all sorts—mostly healthy, seedy, brown. There were also some tiny little meatballs!! I’m not sure what the meatballs were all about but I had a couple and they were fine. No sauce, just meatballs….for breakfast!! I love traveling. You just have all kinds of new experiences and learn new things!!
Don had dinner last night with 4 Germans who spoke no English and barely acknowledged him. He was very unhappy so this morning we got a different table assignment and will be with the Grand Circle group, all of whom speak English.
We will be stopping at the northernmost town in the world in a little bit and I’m determined to get off and try to buy something from there!! My token purchase from the northernmost city in the world!! I’ll probably wind up with a dumb reindeer or something!! LOL
So far have been unable to log on to the Internet although my computer says the wifi signal is excellent. Don’t really know what is wrong but will try to get it figured out.
M/S Polarlys
The day has dawned and it is beautiful. We have already made 6 or seven stops along our route and I slept through most of them. Today I’m glad I’m alive!! Yesterday I just wanted somebody to take me out and shoot me because I was so miserable but the seasickness has passed. I now have a whole new level of sympathy for folks who suffer from seasickness. What a helpless feeling!! Ah well.
We are settling in to ship life. It is such a tiny ship and they have no planned activities at all. The big activity is to wait for the next port of call!! Breakfast this morning was a typical Scandinavian breakfast. Lots of weird fishy dishes, sliced ham, sliced cheese and breads of all sorts—mostly healthy, seedy, brown. There were also some tiny little meatballs!! I’m not sure what the meatballs were all about but I had a couple and they were fine. No sauce, just meatballs….for breakfast!! I love traveling. You just have all kinds of new experiences and learn new things!!
Don had dinner last night with 4 Germans who spoke no English and barely acknowledged him. He was very unhappy so this morning we got a different table assignment and will be with the Grand Circle group, all of whom speak English.
We will be stopping at the northernmost town in the world in a little bit and I’m determined to get off and try to buy something from there!! My token purchase from the northernmost city in the world!! I’ll probably wind up with a dumb reindeer or something!! LOL
So far have been unable to log on to the Internet although my computer says the wifi signal is excellent. Don’t really know what is wrong but will try to get it figured out.
M/S Polarlys
September 10, 2009 Thursday
M/S Polarlys
We managed to get to the train station and from there to the airport with oodles of time to spare and Don was a happy camper!! All his preparations paid off and he was comfortable. LOL
Checking in at the Oslo Airport was really easy and it is virtually all automated. You walk up to a machine like the kind where we get boarding passes and it not only gives you a boarding pass but also checks your bag(s) and gives you a routing ticket to affix to the bag(s). Then all you do is take whatever you want to check through up to a counter and put it on a moving belt and off you go to security. Their security is the same as ours except that they do not make you take off your shoes.
The plane to Kirkenes was a small jet and was only half full. I had envisioned that nearly everybody on the plane would be taking the ship but this was totally wrong. There were only about 6 of us on the plane that were going to the ship. I have no idea how the rest of the passengers got to the ship except that a fairly sizeable number took the round trip from Bergen. There also is a group of Grand Circle tourists who joined the ship in Kirkenes and arrived by bus.
The ship is small (capacity of 750 passengers) and only has about 300 passengers this trip. First thing I did was go up to the area where drinks were served and ask for hot chocolate. I got my cup of chocolate and then was told the cost!! Oops!! Didn’t realize they were charging for coffee, tea, cocoa, etc. after the noon meal! That little piece of information was given to us at a meeting that took place shortly after we departed!!!
We made our way up to the top of the ship and got seats smack in the middle of the front of the ship and we sat there and watched as we departed Kirkenes and started on our trip. The water was very rough and I was feeling a bit queasy but still managed to make it to lunch and eat some of the lunch fare. Looks like the food may be okay on this ship.
This little boat is a combination ferry, mail boat, cruise ship and general means of communication between all these tiny villages on all these tiny islands up north here. It will be making 34 stops as we move south to Bergen and I’m determined to see whatever there is to see at each port.
Well, we just got back from our first port of call and we were laughing so hard I could hardly write. We had put on our warm jackets and were right at the front of the line to get off when we docked. Little did we know that it had started to rain, a blowing, cold rain that just penetrated right through you. It was all I could do to get Don off the gangplank, let alone to get him to walk all the way to the abandoned fort that is the highlight of this village!! We managed to get about a block up the street and Don spotted a sign that pointed to the left that said “souvenirs” and he suddenly had a great urge to go shopping!! Now this is NOT the Don that I know and love and I started to laugh. He said, “Hell, I’ll do anything to get out of this damned cold.” He nearly pulled the door off its hinges but to no avail. The shop was closed so off we again started for the fort. He made it another block and suddenly made an about face and announced that he was heading back and I could do “any damned thing” I wanted to do. By that time I was pretty fed up with the weather too and so we both came back to the ship!! We were both in hysterics by the time we boarded and I’m pretty sure that the ship’s crew thought we were nuts. I told them that we had thought it was cold on board the ship but now it was looking pretty warm!!
I had to blow dry my hair and when I came out of the bathroom, Don was sitting on our couch with a big wool blanket wrapped around himself! He is dubious about getting off at the next port in three more hours!! In fact, I may not get him off the ship for the rest of the voyage!!
He is now wrapped in his wool blanket, on his knees, peering out the cabin window!!
About 3pm I started feeling like something was wrong but I couldn’t identify what it was. My stomach was gnawing on my backbone and I just was feeling icky. I finally decided that I needed to lie down and I felt ever so much better when I was down so by 4pm I was all curled up under two blankets in bed and I just knew that I would feel better if I was any place but on this floating bobber in the middle of the sea. I was SEASICK and it is the first time I’ve ever been afflicted with this. Not fun—not fun at all. Don brought me a bowl of soup for dinner and I got that down and it actually felt pretty good although what kind of soup it was is anybody’s guess. It was a creamed something or other with a most peculiar taste but not terribly unpleasant and it was warm, so I was happy. I went to sleep and didn’t wake up until 1:30am!! Just long enough to peek out the window and see that it wasn’t dark outside and the I went right back to sleep until morning.
M/S Polarlys
We managed to get to the train station and from there to the airport with oodles of time to spare and Don was a happy camper!! All his preparations paid off and he was comfortable. LOL
Checking in at the Oslo Airport was really easy and it is virtually all automated. You walk up to a machine like the kind where we get boarding passes and it not only gives you a boarding pass but also checks your bag(s) and gives you a routing ticket to affix to the bag(s). Then all you do is take whatever you want to check through up to a counter and put it on a moving belt and off you go to security. Their security is the same as ours except that they do not make you take off your shoes.
The plane to Kirkenes was a small jet and was only half full. I had envisioned that nearly everybody on the plane would be taking the ship but this was totally wrong. There were only about 6 of us on the plane that were going to the ship. I have no idea how the rest of the passengers got to the ship except that a fairly sizeable number took the round trip from Bergen. There also is a group of Grand Circle tourists who joined the ship in Kirkenes and arrived by bus.
The ship is small (capacity of 750 passengers) and only has about 300 passengers this trip. First thing I did was go up to the area where drinks were served and ask for hot chocolate. I got my cup of chocolate and then was told the cost!! Oops!! Didn’t realize they were charging for coffee, tea, cocoa, etc. after the noon meal! That little piece of information was given to us at a meeting that took place shortly after we departed!!!
We made our way up to the top of the ship and got seats smack in the middle of the front of the ship and we sat there and watched as we departed Kirkenes and started on our trip. The water was very rough and I was feeling a bit queasy but still managed to make it to lunch and eat some of the lunch fare. Looks like the food may be okay on this ship.
This little boat is a combination ferry, mail boat, cruise ship and general means of communication between all these tiny villages on all these tiny islands up north here. It will be making 34 stops as we move south to Bergen and I’m determined to see whatever there is to see at each port.
Well, we just got back from our first port of call and we were laughing so hard I could hardly write. We had put on our warm jackets and were right at the front of the line to get off when we docked. Little did we know that it had started to rain, a blowing, cold rain that just penetrated right through you. It was all I could do to get Don off the gangplank, let alone to get him to walk all the way to the abandoned fort that is the highlight of this village!! We managed to get about a block up the street and Don spotted a sign that pointed to the left that said “souvenirs” and he suddenly had a great urge to go shopping!! Now this is NOT the Don that I know and love and I started to laugh. He said, “Hell, I’ll do anything to get out of this damned cold.” He nearly pulled the door off its hinges but to no avail. The shop was closed so off we again started for the fort. He made it another block and suddenly made an about face and announced that he was heading back and I could do “any damned thing” I wanted to do. By that time I was pretty fed up with the weather too and so we both came back to the ship!! We were both in hysterics by the time we boarded and I’m pretty sure that the ship’s crew thought we were nuts. I told them that we had thought it was cold on board the ship but now it was looking pretty warm!!
I had to blow dry my hair and when I came out of the bathroom, Don was sitting on our couch with a big wool blanket wrapped around himself! He is dubious about getting off at the next port in three more hours!! In fact, I may not get him off the ship for the rest of the voyage!!
He is now wrapped in his wool blanket, on his knees, peering out the cabin window!!
About 3pm I started feeling like something was wrong but I couldn’t identify what it was. My stomach was gnawing on my backbone and I just was feeling icky. I finally decided that I needed to lie down and I felt ever so much better when I was down so by 4pm I was all curled up under two blankets in bed and I just knew that I would feel better if I was any place but on this floating bobber in the middle of the sea. I was SEASICK and it is the first time I’ve ever been afflicted with this. Not fun—not fun at all. Don brought me a bowl of soup for dinner and I got that down and it actually felt pretty good although what kind of soup it was is anybody’s guess. It was a creamed something or other with a most peculiar taste but not terribly unpleasant and it was warm, so I was happy. I went to sleep and didn’t wake up until 1:30am!! Just long enough to peek out the window and see that it wasn’t dark outside and the I went right back to sleep until morning.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Oslo, Norway
September 9,2009, Wednesday
Oslo, Norway
We walked a zillion miles in the other direction today and did Froggner Park which contains all the sculptures of Gustav Vigeland. It is a most impressive and interesting place and I took lots and lots of pictures. Don decided that we should then walk back downtown and I finally put my foot down and announced that he could walk downtown but I was going to take the tram!! I’m quite happy walking but there are limits and my knees are really starting to bother me and I just didn’t want to walk any more! And it is a good thing because it must have been 5-7 miles back to downtown. Whew!!
We met some fellow Americans and had a nice little chat with them. They used to live in Oak Park but now live in Sarasota, Florida. They are traveling on their own too, so it was fun to compare stories.
Don was DETERMINED to go to the railroad station to see how we get the train to the airport and he would not be deterred. He has asked nearly every person in Norway how to get to the airport and today he needed to SEE the train!! E-e-e-eK!!!!!! Then after dinner tonight he made me show him where the tram stop is that we will take to the train station and now he just came upstairs, after putting our luggage in storage for a week, and he has again asked the front desk clerk about getting to the airport and she has given him a completely different set of directions. This just drives me nuts but there isn’t a thing I can do about it so………
I decided to get a box of candy for the staff to share as a small token of our appreciation for doing the laundry. It took us almost forever to find the store but it was worth it. There is a very exclusive French chocolatier shop just up the way from us and we went there to get the candy but we had a terrible time finding it. After going around and around the block, we finally found a gal who knew exactly where it was and we were within one store of finding it!!! You buy it by the piece, at about $3-$4/piece and we were able to get a nice selection in a most attractive package to give to the staff. We also picked up some roses for the head lady and she was thrilled half to death. Definitely one of our better ideas.
Tomorrow will be a long day, so I’ll sign off for now.
Oslo, Norway
We walked a zillion miles in the other direction today and did Froggner Park which contains all the sculptures of Gustav Vigeland. It is a most impressive and interesting place and I took lots and lots of pictures. Don decided that we should then walk back downtown and I finally put my foot down and announced that he could walk downtown but I was going to take the tram!! I’m quite happy walking but there are limits and my knees are really starting to bother me and I just didn’t want to walk any more! And it is a good thing because it must have been 5-7 miles back to downtown. Whew!!
We met some fellow Americans and had a nice little chat with them. They used to live in Oak Park but now live in Sarasota, Florida. They are traveling on their own too, so it was fun to compare stories.
Don was DETERMINED to go to the railroad station to see how we get the train to the airport and he would not be deterred. He has asked nearly every person in Norway how to get to the airport and today he needed to SEE the train!! E-e-e-eK!!!!!! Then after dinner tonight he made me show him where the tram stop is that we will take to the train station and now he just came upstairs, after putting our luggage in storage for a week, and he has again asked the front desk clerk about getting to the airport and she has given him a completely different set of directions. This just drives me nuts but there isn’t a thing I can do about it so………
I decided to get a box of candy for the staff to share as a small token of our appreciation for doing the laundry. It took us almost forever to find the store but it was worth it. There is a very exclusive French chocolatier shop just up the way from us and we went there to get the candy but we had a terrible time finding it. After going around and around the block, we finally found a gal who knew exactly where it was and we were within one store of finding it!!! You buy it by the piece, at about $3-$4/piece and we were able to get a nice selection in a most attractive package to give to the staff. We also picked up some roses for the head lady and she was thrilled half to death. Definitely one of our better ideas.
Tomorrow will be a long day, so I’ll sign off for now.
Oslo, Norway
September 8, 2009, Tuesday
Oslo, Norway
We got up early, took the laundry downstairs and then went walking. We walked until I felt like my feet were going to fall off but Oslo is really a rather small city and we were able to see most of the city high-lights.
We found a wonderful little bakery and stopped and had a pastry and a HUGE cup of latte. They serve the lattes in a bowl, not a cup and the bowl is the size you would use for cereal!! Even though it is quite cool here, people are sitting outdoors at little cafes and bakeries all over the city. I guess that this is warm weather to them and they are going to enjoy every minute of it!
I’m fascinated by the way they park here. It doesn’t matter whether you park going the right way or not. Even on two way streets, you find cars parked going the wrong way on the wrong side of the street. So you can’t tell if a street is a one way or two way by looking at the parked cars because everybody just pulls in to parking spots any old which way!!
Prices here are steep and I can’t help but wonder who much these folks earn. It is expensive to live here so they either must not have many of the things we take for granted or they earn more than we earn. I suspect they don’t have many of the things we think are absolute necessities.
At dinner tonight we sat next to a couple of women who spoke to us at length and said that the wages here in Norway are MUCH higher than in other parts of Europe. They were not specific but did agree that the taxes here were VERY high. They also said that they were not worried by the Muslim population but did state that they understood why some people might be uncomfortable. We notice a HUGE number of Muslims here in Oslo and can’t help but wonder if they are moving here in great numbers or if we are simply seeing a large number of tourist groups.
The laundry is finally back---after 10 hours. God only knows what took so long but it is back and we have re-folded all of it and it is a bit rumpled but appears to be clean. I think their dryer is not built for the quantity of clothing that we had and it just took forever to dry the clothes!! Ah well. Tomorrow I go shopping for gift for all the staff that ran up and down to check on my laundry.
Oslo, Norway
We got up early, took the laundry downstairs and then went walking. We walked until I felt like my feet were going to fall off but Oslo is really a rather small city and we were able to see most of the city high-lights.
We found a wonderful little bakery and stopped and had a pastry and a HUGE cup of latte. They serve the lattes in a bowl, not a cup and the bowl is the size you would use for cereal!! Even though it is quite cool here, people are sitting outdoors at little cafes and bakeries all over the city. I guess that this is warm weather to them and they are going to enjoy every minute of it!
I’m fascinated by the way they park here. It doesn’t matter whether you park going the right way or not. Even on two way streets, you find cars parked going the wrong way on the wrong side of the street. So you can’t tell if a street is a one way or two way by looking at the parked cars because everybody just pulls in to parking spots any old which way!!
Prices here are steep and I can’t help but wonder who much these folks earn. It is expensive to live here so they either must not have many of the things we take for granted or they earn more than we earn. I suspect they don’t have many of the things we think are absolute necessities.
At dinner tonight we sat next to a couple of women who spoke to us at length and said that the wages here in Norway are MUCH higher than in other parts of Europe. They were not specific but did agree that the taxes here were VERY high. They also said that they were not worried by the Muslim population but did state that they understood why some people might be uncomfortable. We notice a HUGE number of Muslims here in Oslo and can’t help but wonder if they are moving here in great numbers or if we are simply seeing a large number of tourist groups.
The laundry is finally back---after 10 hours. God only knows what took so long but it is back and we have re-folded all of it and it is a bit rumpled but appears to be clean. I think their dryer is not built for the quantity of clothing that we had and it just took forever to dry the clothes!! Ah well. Tomorrow I go shopping for gift for all the staff that ran up and down to check on my laundry.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Oslo, Norway
September 7, 2009, Monday
Oslo, Norway
What a fun day. The drive was the most interesting since we started. There are forests and hills and lots of rocks and lake after lake after lake. We got lost and Carmen (the Garmin) got all disgusted with us and kept bitching at us to “please follow the route”. She didn’t know that there were some major detours and the route she had selected was impassable. Ah well, we did find our way and we are at the cutest little hotel within walking distance of nearly everything we want to see.
Once again we are having trouble finding a laundromat but this time we found the hotel owner and she said that she would do my laundry herself because she likes us!! I would really prefer to do my own laundry but she was quite insistent. I think that the reason for her insistence is that she saw that we had a parking space directly in front of the hotel and it is a free spot and she told us to NEVER leave that spot. It is the best place in the world and we can leave the car there the whole time we are on the ship and it is safe. She was awed that we got that spot and I think she wants to help us keep it!! I told her that I had my laundry detergent and the cute little sheets for the dryer and she was quite fascinated about the little sheets!! Apparently they don’t have Bounce over here, so she will learn something new! LOL
I’m trying to figure out what I can get her to thank her for doing my laundry!! We’ve been told that we are in a ritzy part of Oslo and that “all the major embassies are in this neighborhood.” La-de-dah!! It is nice to know that this is a safe place though and that we can leave our car parked here for a week.
We got pulled over on our way in to town by the Customs Agents. We couldn’t figure out what we had done that was wrong but apparently nothing was wrong, they just wanted to talk with us and see what we were up to. The red license plate is a dead give-away that we are foreigners and that is why we were stopped. They were very friendly and we had a nice chat and then we were on our way.
All the ATM’s in Norway are in 7-11’s!!!!!! There are 7-11’s everywhere and everybody sends you to the 7-11 if you want cash!! Of course, banks are available but the place that the common man goes is to the 7-11. Their signs are just like the ones at home and they are more common here than McDonalds!!
Oslo, Norway
What a fun day. The drive was the most interesting since we started. There are forests and hills and lots of rocks and lake after lake after lake. We got lost and Carmen (the Garmin) got all disgusted with us and kept bitching at us to “please follow the route”. She didn’t know that there were some major detours and the route she had selected was impassable. Ah well, we did find our way and we are at the cutest little hotel within walking distance of nearly everything we want to see.
Once again we are having trouble finding a laundromat but this time we found the hotel owner and she said that she would do my laundry herself because she likes us!! I would really prefer to do my own laundry but she was quite insistent. I think that the reason for her insistence is that she saw that we had a parking space directly in front of the hotel and it is a free spot and she told us to NEVER leave that spot. It is the best place in the world and we can leave the car there the whole time we are on the ship and it is safe. She was awed that we got that spot and I think she wants to help us keep it!! I told her that I had my laundry detergent and the cute little sheets for the dryer and she was quite fascinated about the little sheets!! Apparently they don’t have Bounce over here, so she will learn something new! LOL
I’m trying to figure out what I can get her to thank her for doing my laundry!! We’ve been told that we are in a ritzy part of Oslo and that “all the major embassies are in this neighborhood.” La-de-dah!! It is nice to know that this is a safe place though and that we can leave our car parked here for a week.
We got pulled over on our way in to town by the Customs Agents. We couldn’t figure out what we had done that was wrong but apparently nothing was wrong, they just wanted to talk with us and see what we were up to. The red license plate is a dead give-away that we are foreigners and that is why we were stopped. They were very friendly and we had a nice chat and then we were on our way.
All the ATM’s in Norway are in 7-11’s!!!!!! There are 7-11’s everywhere and everybody sends you to the 7-11 if you want cash!! Of course, banks are available but the place that the common man goes is to the 7-11. Their signs are just like the ones at home and they are more common here than McDonalds!!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Karstad, Sweden
September 6, 2009, Sunday
Karstad, Sweden
Been a day of screw-ups!! First I set the alarm so we would get out of bed at a decent hour but not too early. Well, it went off and we got up and got ready to go to breakfast and suddenly I realized that I had not set the time back when we came back from Finland, so we were up an hour earlier than we had planned! Morning person that I am, I was NOT pleased!
Then we drove on in to Karstad and asked for directions to a laundromat and they told us that they do not have one in the whole city!!! This is not a tiny burg, it is a fairly sizeable city and no laundromats! I really don’[t believe the hotel girl but we went out walking and we looked all over the place and didn’t see a single thing that resembled a laundromat. The girl at the hotel told me that I could use the hotel’s washing machine but they do not have a dryer and I could just see us trying to pack up tomorrow with a bunch of damp laundry. So we will try to do laundry tomorrow in Oslo.
We walked to the city center, a square that is the size of one of our city blocks. It has benches and right in the middle is a statue of a woman with her hands raised in victory and her foot is squarely planted on a soldier’s head! I thought it might be in honor of WWII but I was told that it is showing that there is no more war between the Scandinavian counties. They squabbled and fought each other ofr hundreds of years and finally they are at peace.
Then there is another statue of a man standing on a table and also on the table is a bottle of beer. This is commemorating one of their poets. My thought on this is that they must have a wild man for a poet for him to be standing on table!!
So while we were out, I decided that we definitely needed more Swedish money. So I went to the ATM and took out the max. Now that we ae back, I realize that we leave Sweden tomorrow and I have no clue what we will do with all this money! Duh!! I guess I’ll just hold it until we come back through and I’ll pay cash for everything!! Since most of our hotels are pre-paid, I may wind up having to take it to a currency exchange and that will make me very unhappy as they take a big hit when they exchange your money.
Don thought that he had spotted a flea market when we came in to town, so we had to walk over to see it and lo and behold it was some fellow who had set up 4-8foot tables and they were covered with all kinds of mushrooms and toad stools and fungi of all
types. English was carefully labeled with the name of the fungus and the Latin name. Since he didn‘t speak English I couldn’t really ask him what he was doing but it was kind of interesting. He did manage to tell me that there were only about 6 types that were edible. There were no prices on the labels and it didn’t appear that he was selling them, so I don’t know what on earth he was doing. I thought it was all very strange but Don was enthralled.
Karstad, Sweden
Been a day of screw-ups!! First I set the alarm so we would get out of bed at a decent hour but not too early. Well, it went off and we got up and got ready to go to breakfast and suddenly I realized that I had not set the time back when we came back from Finland, so we were up an hour earlier than we had planned! Morning person that I am, I was NOT pleased!
Then we drove on in to Karstad and asked for directions to a laundromat and they told us that they do not have one in the whole city!!! This is not a tiny burg, it is a fairly sizeable city and no laundromats! I really don’[t believe the hotel girl but we went out walking and we looked all over the place and didn’t see a single thing that resembled a laundromat. The girl at the hotel told me that I could use the hotel’s washing machine but they do not have a dryer and I could just see us trying to pack up tomorrow with a bunch of damp laundry. So we will try to do laundry tomorrow in Oslo.
We walked to the city center, a square that is the size of one of our city blocks. It has benches and right in the middle is a statue of a woman with her hands raised in victory and her foot is squarely planted on a soldier’s head! I thought it might be in honor of WWII but I was told that it is showing that there is no more war between the Scandinavian counties. They squabbled and fought each other ofr hundreds of years and finally they are at peace.
Then there is another statue of a man standing on a table and also on the table is a bottle of beer. This is commemorating one of their poets. My thought on this is that they must have a wild man for a poet for him to be standing on table!!
So while we were out, I decided that we definitely needed more Swedish money. So I went to the ATM and took out the max. Now that we ae back, I realize that we leave Sweden tomorrow and I have no clue what we will do with all this money! Duh!! I guess I’ll just hold it until we come back through and I’ll pay cash for everything!! Since most of our hotels are pre-paid, I may wind up having to take it to a currency exchange and that will make me very unhappy as they take a big hit when they exchange your money.
Don thought that he had spotted a flea market when we came in to town, so we had to walk over to see it and lo and behold it was some fellow who had set up 4-8foot tables and they were covered with all kinds of mushrooms and toad stools and fungi of all
types. English was carefully labeled with the name of the fungus and the Latin name. Since he didn‘t speak English I couldn’t really ask him what he was doing but it was kind of interesting. He did manage to tell me that there were only about 6 types that were edible. There were no prices on the labels and it didn’t appear that he was selling them, so I don’t know what on earth he was doing. I thought it was all very strange but Don was enthralled.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Stockholm, Sweden
September 5, 2009, Saturday
Stockholm, Sweden
Lovely, quiet day. I’ve caught up with the labeling of all our pictures and we’ve moved from Helsinki back to Stockholm. Don is napping as I write and I’m just resting and generally doing nothing.
We took a tram and a bus to the airport this morning and arrived about an hour before our flight left. The flight was smooth and quick and then we waited for a few minutes until the long term parking bus came and got us. Traveling over here is really very simple and they make things easy because they have such great mass transportation. Now, if they’d just learn how to cook………. J
I’m hoping to do laundry tomorrow. I really don’t HAVE to do it for another 2-3 days but it would be nice to get it out of the way before we hit Oslo. I had originally planned to do it in Oslo but I’d rather spend my time there in sight seeing. We’ll have to see how large the town is that we are in tomorrow. I’m VERY proud that we managed to get over here with only two carry on bags and one large bag. I’m not sure how rwe are going to get back home though since I’ve managed to pick up so much stuff!! The good news is that we are going through books at a fierce pace and we just leave them behind when we are finished, so that will help a little bit. Or, I suppose, we could just wear our HEAVY coats that I had packed to get over here. Of course, we’ll look like a pair of doofuses with winter coats on in September, but……. I think we will be glad that we have them when we get up to Kirkenes. It’s supposed to be quite chilly up there.
Stockholm, Sweden
Lovely, quiet day. I’ve caught up with the labeling of all our pictures and we’ve moved from Helsinki back to Stockholm. Don is napping as I write and I’m just resting and generally doing nothing.
We took a tram and a bus to the airport this morning and arrived about an hour before our flight left. The flight was smooth and quick and then we waited for a few minutes until the long term parking bus came and got us. Traveling over here is really very simple and they make things easy because they have such great mass transportation. Now, if they’d just learn how to cook………. J
I’m hoping to do laundry tomorrow. I really don’t HAVE to do it for another 2-3 days but it would be nice to get it out of the way before we hit Oslo. I had originally planned to do it in Oslo but I’d rather spend my time there in sight seeing. We’ll have to see how large the town is that we are in tomorrow. I’m VERY proud that we managed to get over here with only two carry on bags and one large bag. I’m not sure how rwe are going to get back home though since I’ve managed to pick up so much stuff!! The good news is that we are going through books at a fierce pace and we just leave them behind when we are finished, so that will help a little bit. Or, I suppose, we could just wear our HEAVY coats that I had packed to get over here. Of course, we’ll look like a pair of doofuses with winter coats on in September, but……. I think we will be glad that we have them when we get up to Kirkenes. It’s supposed to be quite chilly up there.
Helsinki, Finland
September 4, 2009, Friday
Helsinki, Finland
Our last day in Finland and we started off with a huge breakfast. I got mushrooms, baked beans, eggs, cheese, ham, bacon, croissant, juice, mixed fruit bowl and latte. I was in heaven!! We decided to take the tram downtown and we got on in front of our hotel. No sooner had we boarded than a very peculiar man sitting a couple seats ahead of us decided to focus on us. He got out of his seat and made strange noises and strange faces and then he came over to us and stuck his hand out to Don to shake. Lo and behold, the guy had on plastic gloves, like they wear in the hospital. Don shook his hand and we went back to trying to ignore him but he wouldn’t be ignored. He grabbed my hand and got down on his knees and kissed my hand, slobbering all over it in the process. Then he got up and mimed that he wanted to fight with Don. It was all very strange and everybody was looking at us and him. I told him to go and sit down but he just wanted to “play with us”. He stood on his head in the middle of the aisle and then tried to get Don to shake his hand again. In the mean time, he would intermittently hit me in the shoulder. Finally I just got up and walked to the back of the tram and very shortly Don joined me and that was the end of the strange man but the people in the tram talked with me and told me that there was a mental hospital nearby and that they thought he might have come from there. They were all apologetic but we assured them that there were nut cases all over the world and he was harmless and we did understand that Finland wasn’t a country full of dingbats!! It was kind of exciting though!! After we got into town, we went in to the large department store and found a washroom where we both washed our hands!! The guy had slobbered all over the place and at one point had taken his teeth out to show us and we both felt kind of “germy”.
We picked up my stuff from Marimeko and they were very helpful in telling me how to get my VAT back. We wandered up and down the Esplanade and then went to the farmer’s market where Don bought a pint of raspberries (5 €) and proceeded to eat then whole thing!! I swear he has a cast iron stomach! If I did that I would have diarrhea for the next week but he will be fine. He is SO trusting. He asked the sales girl if they had to be washed before he ate them and she said that they did not and so he just started eating them right there. I took pictures of him feeding his face!! His hands got all red with berry juice and he was licking his fingers. Ick!! Ah well!!
We found some pretty thing in the market and bought more than we had anticipated buying and now we aren’t sure how we are going to get all this tuff home!! I did tuck a fold up suitcase in our suitcase before we came over and I think I may be glad that I did that!!
Helsinki, Finland
Our last day in Finland and we started off with a huge breakfast. I got mushrooms, baked beans, eggs, cheese, ham, bacon, croissant, juice, mixed fruit bowl and latte. I was in heaven!! We decided to take the tram downtown and we got on in front of our hotel. No sooner had we boarded than a very peculiar man sitting a couple seats ahead of us decided to focus on us. He got out of his seat and made strange noises and strange faces and then he came over to us and stuck his hand out to Don to shake. Lo and behold, the guy had on plastic gloves, like they wear in the hospital. Don shook his hand and we went back to trying to ignore him but he wouldn’t be ignored. He grabbed my hand and got down on his knees and kissed my hand, slobbering all over it in the process. Then he got up and mimed that he wanted to fight with Don. It was all very strange and everybody was looking at us and him. I told him to go and sit down but he just wanted to “play with us”. He stood on his head in the middle of the aisle and then tried to get Don to shake his hand again. In the mean time, he would intermittently hit me in the shoulder. Finally I just got up and walked to the back of the tram and very shortly Don joined me and that was the end of the strange man but the people in the tram talked with me and told me that there was a mental hospital nearby and that they thought he might have come from there. They were all apologetic but we assured them that there were nut cases all over the world and he was harmless and we did understand that Finland wasn’t a country full of dingbats!! It was kind of exciting though!! After we got into town, we went in to the large department store and found a washroom where we both washed our hands!! The guy had slobbered all over the place and at one point had taken his teeth out to show us and we both felt kind of “germy”.
We picked up my stuff from Marimeko and they were very helpful in telling me how to get my VAT back. We wandered up and down the Esplanade and then went to the farmer’s market where Don bought a pint of raspberries (5 €) and proceeded to eat then whole thing!! I swear he has a cast iron stomach! If I did that I would have diarrhea for the next week but he will be fine. He is SO trusting. He asked the sales girl if they had to be washed before he ate them and she said that they did not and so he just started eating them right there. I took pictures of him feeding his face!! His hands got all red with berry juice and he was licking his fingers. Ick!! Ah well!!
We found some pretty thing in the market and bought more than we had anticipated buying and now we aren’t sure how we are going to get all this tuff home!! I did tuck a fold up suitcase in our suitcase before we came over and I think I may be glad that I did that!!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Helsinki, Finland
September 3, 2009, Thursday
Helsinki, Finland
Last night’s dinner was absolutely to die for!! It was just delicious and so attractive. I may stop losing weight if this kind of food keeps appearing in front of me!!
We got up early this morning and breakfast was the best since we left home! Ah food!! I LOVE good food! So after feeding my face, we hopped on the tram and went downtown to try to find the hop on hop off bus. What a joke! We kept getting different directions and we walked all over hell’s half acre before we FINALLY found a square that was obviously VERY important. Sure enough, right out in front of the church on the square was our hop on hop off bus!! By that time, we had traveled half the city and had seen many of the things that we again saw in the bus tour.
I did run in to a Marimeko Store and it was fantastic!! Don found a bench and sat down and I just went NUTS!! The salesgirl told me that I would get over $50 back if I gave her my passport number. Wouldn’t you just know that I didn‘t have the darned thing with me so I cut a deal with her. She is holding my stuff for me and tomorrow I’ll go back with my passport and get my VAT form completed. This was the best of all possible worlds for me because I really didn’t want to haul all my purchases around with me all day!!
It is wonderful to again have a hair dryer!! We actually have two of them in this room…one for each hand, I guess!
There really isn’t a whole lot to see here in Finland. There aren’t very many people and there aren’t very many things that have happened here, so we saw things like the Olympic stadium that was built in 1940 but not used until 1952 (because of WWII) and the statue honoring Sibelius. They do have a church that was built completely IN the rock hill and it is quite amazing. It reminded us of Coby Pedy in Australia.
Tomorrow the plan is to walk up and down the pedestrian mall and to get to the open air market. Not a huge day, so we’ll undoubtedly get a lot of reading done!!
Helsinki, Finland
Last night’s dinner was absolutely to die for!! It was just delicious and so attractive. I may stop losing weight if this kind of food keeps appearing in front of me!!
We got up early this morning and breakfast was the best since we left home! Ah food!! I LOVE good food! So after feeding my face, we hopped on the tram and went downtown to try to find the hop on hop off bus. What a joke! We kept getting different directions and we walked all over hell’s half acre before we FINALLY found a square that was obviously VERY important. Sure enough, right out in front of the church on the square was our hop on hop off bus!! By that time, we had traveled half the city and had seen many of the things that we again saw in the bus tour.
I did run in to a Marimeko Store and it was fantastic!! Don found a bench and sat down and I just went NUTS!! The salesgirl told me that I would get over $50 back if I gave her my passport number. Wouldn’t you just know that I didn‘t have the darned thing with me so I cut a deal with her. She is holding my stuff for me and tomorrow I’ll go back with my passport and get my VAT form completed. This was the best of all possible worlds for me because I really didn’t want to haul all my purchases around with me all day!!
It is wonderful to again have a hair dryer!! We actually have two of them in this room…one for each hand, I guess!
There really isn’t a whole lot to see here in Finland. There aren’t very many people and there aren’t very many things that have happened here, so we saw things like the Olympic stadium that was built in 1940 but not used until 1952 (because of WWII) and the statue honoring Sibelius. They do have a church that was built completely IN the rock hill and it is quite amazing. It reminded us of Coby Pedy in Australia.
Tomorrow the plan is to walk up and down the pedestrian mall and to get to the open air market. Not a huge day, so we’ll undoubtedly get a lot of reading done!!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Helsinki, Finland
September 2, 2009, Wednesday
Helsinki, Finland
We were up at the crack of dawn (5am) in order to get to the airport to catch our flight to Finland. It was pouring when we left the hotel and it rained all the way to the airport. We had a terrible time finding long term parking but we finally found it and got a parking spot right close to the bus pick-up station, so all was well and we arrived in plenty of time. They had no check in desk, only machines, in Swedish, to allow you to get your boarding pass. I fiddled around with the darned machine for a bit and finally figured it out and out popped two lovely boarding passes!! I was VERY pleased!
The flight over was smooth and fast. In fact, the pilot made the usual announcements about how long the flight would take and what the cruising altitude would band he said, “We will reach our cruising altitude of 29,000 feet and we will stay there for……one minute, and then we will land…..” Nobody else on the plane seemed to notice what he said but I thought it was hysterical. It truly was an up and down flight though. Only lasted about 45 minutes. When we landed, the weather was sunny and lovely and the whole day has been grand.
The airport is a long ways out from the city and so we took an airport bus in to the city and then a tram from the city center to our hotel. We really get along very well on public transportation and it certainly is an easy way to travel over here. Since we only had one small carry on bag, it was no problem to get on and off a bus and tram. Ad over here I’ve never seen so many people hauling suitcases around. It is almost hazardous to walk down the sidewalks because so many people and pulling suitcases. I’m just going to have to pay more attention at home to whether there are tons of people in our country pulling suitcases. It feels like the whole world is traveling!!
We walked around our hotel this afternoon. We are right on the shoreline and we can see the cruise terminal and some stacks of containers. There really isn’t very much around here though so tomorrow we will take the tram in to the city center and probably buy a pass on the hop on hop off bus. Those things work really well for us and we use them whenever we can.
I brought two small change purses and thought that would solve the varying currency problem. Silly me!! I have Euros, Danish Kroners, Swedish Kroners and now we may wind up with Finnish money, although we’ve been led to believe that we may be able to use euros here. Europe must have been a mess before the euro. I’m glad I didn’t travel over here then. I’m going nuts with 3 currencies and I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been back when!!!
Our Internet is FREE here (not a common thing) but the connectivity is not very good and I can’t find anything better to pirate, so we’ll see if I can actually publish my blog or if I will need to stack them up. And probably phone calls won’t work well. To make phone calls you really need a pretty good connection. Ah well!!
About 3 this afternoon I decided that I would probably die if I didn’t get some ice cream, so we walked all over the place trying to find some and finally came back to the hotel and got some in the dining room. They have an Italian restaurant here and the menu looked decent so we will probably eat here tonight. Imagine going to Finland to eat Italian!! There is something wrong with this picture but I’m getting pretty tired of some of the weird food we have been getting so some nice pasta sounds pretty good right now!!
We have a very nice room here at the Radisson SAS (pronounced “sass” by the locals). And YES!!! I have a hairdryer!! I can hardly wait to use it and see a person I know looking back at me in the mirror!!
Helsinki, Finland
We were up at the crack of dawn (5am) in order to get to the airport to catch our flight to Finland. It was pouring when we left the hotel and it rained all the way to the airport. We had a terrible time finding long term parking but we finally found it and got a parking spot right close to the bus pick-up station, so all was well and we arrived in plenty of time. They had no check in desk, only machines, in Swedish, to allow you to get your boarding pass. I fiddled around with the darned machine for a bit and finally figured it out and out popped two lovely boarding passes!! I was VERY pleased!
The flight over was smooth and fast. In fact, the pilot made the usual announcements about how long the flight would take and what the cruising altitude would band he said, “We will reach our cruising altitude of 29,000 feet and we will stay there for……one minute, and then we will land…..” Nobody else on the plane seemed to notice what he said but I thought it was hysterical. It truly was an up and down flight though. Only lasted about 45 minutes. When we landed, the weather was sunny and lovely and the whole day has been grand.
The airport is a long ways out from the city and so we took an airport bus in to the city and then a tram from the city center to our hotel. We really get along very well on public transportation and it certainly is an easy way to travel over here. Since we only had one small carry on bag, it was no problem to get on and off a bus and tram. Ad over here I’ve never seen so many people hauling suitcases around. It is almost hazardous to walk down the sidewalks because so many people and pulling suitcases. I’m just going to have to pay more attention at home to whether there are tons of people in our country pulling suitcases. It feels like the whole world is traveling!!
We walked around our hotel this afternoon. We are right on the shoreline and we can see the cruise terminal and some stacks of containers. There really isn’t very much around here though so tomorrow we will take the tram in to the city center and probably buy a pass on the hop on hop off bus. Those things work really well for us and we use them whenever we can.
I brought two small change purses and thought that would solve the varying currency problem. Silly me!! I have Euros, Danish Kroners, Swedish Kroners and now we may wind up with Finnish money, although we’ve been led to believe that we may be able to use euros here. Europe must have been a mess before the euro. I’m glad I didn’t travel over here then. I’m going nuts with 3 currencies and I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been back when!!!
Our Internet is FREE here (not a common thing) but the connectivity is not very good and I can’t find anything better to pirate, so we’ll see if I can actually publish my blog or if I will need to stack them up. And probably phone calls won’t work well. To make phone calls you really need a pretty good connection. Ah well!!
About 3 this afternoon I decided that I would probably die if I didn’t get some ice cream, so we walked all over the place trying to find some and finally came back to the hotel and got some in the dining room. They have an Italian restaurant here and the menu looked decent so we will probably eat here tonight. Imagine going to Finland to eat Italian!! There is something wrong with this picture but I’m getting pretty tired of some of the weird food we have been getting so some nice pasta sounds pretty good right now!!
We have a very nice room here at the Radisson SAS (pronounced “sass” by the locals). And YES!!! I have a hairdryer!! I can hardly wait to use it and see a person I know looking back at me in the mirror!!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Stockholm
September 1, 2009, Tuesday
Stockholm
We are exhausted!! We walked miles and miles today and now we just want to collapse!! All started well with our trip into town via the subway. We were able to get right on to the island where we were to start our self guided walking tour. Well, it deteriorated from there!! I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where we were and how to get to the place to start the tour. We walked and walked and asked and asked and finally we found a familiar street name and the King’s Palace and I figured we were finally on the right track. HA!! Not for long! Almost immediately we were lost again and all this time I am deadly serious about wanting to do this walking tour and Don is just along for the ride and is wandering off here and there and being no help at all. I was SO discouraged and finally I just said to hell with it and went wandering too. We saw a whole lot of stuff but nothing we could identify and we definitely did not see a rune that I was hoping to see or the smallest statue in Stockholm or any of the other things on the tour but we had a lovely time and we got places most people never get!!
It was quite cold this morning so we wore long sleeved shirts and sweaters and our windbreakers. By noon we were peeling off layers and everything landed tied around our waists!! Lunch was an ice cream cone—our usual!!
I found a couple of things that I considered buying but the prices were SO high I had second thought and decided that I didn’t need anything!! I’m appalled by the prices of things over here. I would really like to know what their annual wages are because it is WAY more expensive to live here than to live in the US.
I haven’t had a hairdryer for the last three days and I’m not happy about this situation. I was going to break down and buy one today but tomorrow we go to Finland and I’m sure there will be one at the Radisson, our hotel in Finland. I also check today and found that there will definitely be hair dryers on the ship, so I guess I can look funny here and there, as long as it is not a continuous thing!! I have cowlicks on top of my cowlicks and my hair goes every which way!! Definitely not attractive!!
Stockholm
We are exhausted!! We walked miles and miles today and now we just want to collapse!! All started well with our trip into town via the subway. We were able to get right on to the island where we were to start our self guided walking tour. Well, it deteriorated from there!! I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where we were and how to get to the place to start the tour. We walked and walked and asked and asked and finally we found a familiar street name and the King’s Palace and I figured we were finally on the right track. HA!! Not for long! Almost immediately we were lost again and all this time I am deadly serious about wanting to do this walking tour and Don is just along for the ride and is wandering off here and there and being no help at all. I was SO discouraged and finally I just said to hell with it and went wandering too. We saw a whole lot of stuff but nothing we could identify and we definitely did not see a rune that I was hoping to see or the smallest statue in Stockholm or any of the other things on the tour but we had a lovely time and we got places most people never get!!
It was quite cold this morning so we wore long sleeved shirts and sweaters and our windbreakers. By noon we were peeling off layers and everything landed tied around our waists!! Lunch was an ice cream cone—our usual!!
I found a couple of things that I considered buying but the prices were SO high I had second thought and decided that I didn’t need anything!! I’m appalled by the prices of things over here. I would really like to know what their annual wages are because it is WAY more expensive to live here than to live in the US.
I haven’t had a hairdryer for the last three days and I’m not happy about this situation. I was going to break down and buy one today but tomorrow we go to Finland and I’m sure there will be one at the Radisson, our hotel in Finland. I also check today and found that there will definitely be hair dryers on the ship, so I guess I can look funny here and there, as long as it is not a continuous thing!! I have cowlicks on top of my cowlicks and my hair goes every which way!! Definitely not attractive!!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Stockholm, Sweden
August 31, 2009, Monday
Stockholm, Sweden
Since we are located a fair ways outside of Stockholm proper, we decided to take the Metro and go downtown. It is about a 10 minute walk to the Metro and another 20 minute ride to the center of town. We are in an area with a lot of Muslims and we pass an Islamic Cultural Center on our way to the Metro. We saw a lot of Muslims in Paris and Amsterdam but haven’t seen too many in Scandinavia until we got here.
The train is very modern and quiet and comfortable. The seats are cloth and padded and there is NO trash either in the train or along side the train tracks. There also is virtually NO graffiti!! I am SO impressed by the cleanliness of the city.
We got downtown and thought that the best way to see everything is via a Hop On Hop Off bus and so we bought a two day pass and we rode all over the place on the bus. It is quite cool here and I was glad that I had won a long sleeved shirt and my sweater. Our pass entitles us to also go on the Hop On Hop Off Boat tour too but we decided that we would save that for tomorrow, when we plan to wear our jackets!! It was pretty chilly sitting on the top of the bus sight seeing. It didn’t have a top on today and even though the sun was shining, it was breezy and cool.
There are not a whole lot of things to see here in Stockholm. I want to get back in to the old town and wander around some of the small alleys but other than that, there isn’t a whole lot of any particular interest. I can’t say that I’m just dying to tour city hall or the local radio/tv tower (they are VERY proud that they can receive a zillion stations). It is just a modern, busy city, like many other cities. We will be hard pressed to find things to keep us busy touring for the time we are here!! I suspect that we will take another day off to read and lay around!! Which is fine with us. We are perfectly happy doing not much of anything as well as touring our little hearts out!!
I’m noticing that Don doesn’t have the energy to go as much as we used to go and sometimes he apologizes for his lack of get up and go. I keep telling him that we will do what WE want to do and to just tell me if he wants to quit and go back to the hotel. He is such a stoic, it is REALLY hard for me to tell if he is exhausted or not.
Stockholm, Sweden
Since we are located a fair ways outside of Stockholm proper, we decided to take the Metro and go downtown. It is about a 10 minute walk to the Metro and another 20 minute ride to the center of town. We are in an area with a lot of Muslims and we pass an Islamic Cultural Center on our way to the Metro. We saw a lot of Muslims in Paris and Amsterdam but haven’t seen too many in Scandinavia until we got here.
The train is very modern and quiet and comfortable. The seats are cloth and padded and there is NO trash either in the train or along side the train tracks. There also is virtually NO graffiti!! I am SO impressed by the cleanliness of the city.
We got downtown and thought that the best way to see everything is via a Hop On Hop Off bus and so we bought a two day pass and we rode all over the place on the bus. It is quite cool here and I was glad that I had won a long sleeved shirt and my sweater. Our pass entitles us to also go on the Hop On Hop Off Boat tour too but we decided that we would save that for tomorrow, when we plan to wear our jackets!! It was pretty chilly sitting on the top of the bus sight seeing. It didn’t have a top on today and even though the sun was shining, it was breezy and cool.
There are not a whole lot of things to see here in Stockholm. I want to get back in to the old town and wander around some of the small alleys but other than that, there isn’t a whole lot of any particular interest. I can’t say that I’m just dying to tour city hall or the local radio/tv tower (they are VERY proud that they can receive a zillion stations). It is just a modern, busy city, like many other cities. We will be hard pressed to find things to keep us busy touring for the time we are here!! I suspect that we will take another day off to read and lay around!! Which is fine with us. We are perfectly happy doing not much of anything as well as touring our little hearts out!!
I’m noticing that Don doesn’t have the energy to go as much as we used to go and sometimes he apologizes for his lack of get up and go. I keep telling him that we will do what WE want to do and to just tell me if he wants to quit and go back to the hotel. He is such a stoic, it is REALLY hard for me to tell if he is exhausted or not.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Stockholm, Sweden
August 30, 2009 Sunday
Stockholm
It’s been a quiet and peaceful day. We left at a decent time and the drive was beautiful. We are beginning to get into some hilly, rocky country and the trees and fields were lovely. We drove directly to the hotel and decided to take a day of rest and so we just sat back and read and generally relaxed.
Sweden is less Americanized than Denmark but still almost everybody speaks English and it is very easy to get along here. Our hotel is next door to a McDonalds and about 3pm Don decided that he needed a milkshake, so we split a shake and he couldn’t resist the fries and we split those too!! Tasted just like home!
The weather is definitely cooler and tomorrow I will start wearing long sleeved shirts. It isn’t cold but cool enough to make you want a sweater or long sleeves.
Stockholm
It’s been a quiet and peaceful day. We left at a decent time and the drive was beautiful. We are beginning to get into some hilly, rocky country and the trees and fields were lovely. We drove directly to the hotel and decided to take a day of rest and so we just sat back and read and generally relaxed.
Sweden is less Americanized than Denmark but still almost everybody speaks English and it is very easy to get along here. Our hotel is next door to a McDonalds and about 3pm Don decided that he needed a milkshake, so we split a shake and he couldn’t resist the fries and we split those too!! Tasted just like home!
The weather is definitely cooler and tomorrow I will start wearing long sleeved shirts. It isn’t cold but cool enough to make you want a sweater or long sleeves.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Jonkoping, Sweden
August 29, 2009, Saturday
Jonkoeping, Sweden
We left the hotel from hell and we are happy campers!! I’ve double checked to make sure I did NOT book us in to the same place when we come back through Copenhagen and I did not. Whew!!
Last night was party night outside the hotel and there was loud, continuous revelry until heaven only knows what time. Fortunately I can sleep through anything but poor Don is such a light sleeper that I fear he must have had a bad night.
When I checked out I noticed that there was a different charge for each nigh we had stayed in the hotel. I asked about this and was told that they have a sliding scale for charges and it works based on demand. In other words, if they are really booked up, you pay more but if they have a lot of empty rooms, the price goes down!! Sounds wonderful but how in the world do these people plan trip costs?? I looked at the price that the Internet had told me we were going to pay and we actually paid almost $100 less, so I just kept quiet. My guess is that the Internet gives the highest possible rate although with this hotel, who knows!!
We got on the road at a decent hour and before we knew it, we were back on another ferry!! This was a very short ride and we barely had time enough to climb up into the passenger waiting area when it was time to go back to our car.
So tonight we are in this small city enroute to Stockholm. We are bad in our favorite hotel chain and we have a room that is familiar and welcome!! The weather driving here was very strange. The sun was shining brightly and every half hour or so it would just POUR down rain for about 2 minutes and then clear up. And it is quite windy and getting colder. The landscape is flat and wooded and I was hoping to see some wild life but no luck. There isn’t even any road kill, so there must not be too much going on in these woods! The most excitement we had was when we spotted 5 cows!! Pretty pathetic!
Don announced that he wanted Swedish meatballs for dinner so I looked at the menu as we signed in and the offerings were hysterical: Lasagna Bolognese, Mexican Taco Plate, Swedish Stew and some other non-descript stuff. I was highly amused that they offer an international cuisine at this little restaurant!!
For the first time we have had credit card trouble. We tried to charge our gas today and they wanted a PIN number for our credit card. I had been told by a friend that they had recently run into this and that it was REALLY inconvenient but I didn’t take it to heart and put PIN’s on all our cards, so we had to pay cash. Tonight I’m going to call the credit card company and see how to put PIN’s in our cards. Geez!! Just when you get something figured out they go and change it on you!!
Well, I called the bankcard people and they told me that the ONLY reason you would need a PIN is if you were making a cash withdrawal!! Interesting. They will not give a verbal PIN and told me that NOBODY should be asking or getting my PIN. Hm-m-m!! Well, we’ll see how it goes from here on out. What they said made really good sense to me so at least I can fight if somebody won’t take my credit card again!!
Had dinner at the hotel and Don said that it is the first decent food he’s had in 5 days!! He was as thrilled with the meals at the last place as was I!!! We would have eaten elsewhere but the hotel rate was all inclusive and we just felt like we should eat what we already had paid for!!! Silly….but true!!
Sweden has less English in it’s signage and I’m expecting to see and hear less and less English, although the hotel is very fluent in English.
Jonkoeping, Sweden
We left the hotel from hell and we are happy campers!! I’ve double checked to make sure I did NOT book us in to the same place when we come back through Copenhagen and I did not. Whew!!
Last night was party night outside the hotel and there was loud, continuous revelry until heaven only knows what time. Fortunately I can sleep through anything but poor Don is such a light sleeper that I fear he must have had a bad night.
When I checked out I noticed that there was a different charge for each nigh we had stayed in the hotel. I asked about this and was told that they have a sliding scale for charges and it works based on demand. In other words, if they are really booked up, you pay more but if they have a lot of empty rooms, the price goes down!! Sounds wonderful but how in the world do these people plan trip costs?? I looked at the price that the Internet had told me we were going to pay and we actually paid almost $100 less, so I just kept quiet. My guess is that the Internet gives the highest possible rate although with this hotel, who knows!!
We got on the road at a decent hour and before we knew it, we were back on another ferry!! This was a very short ride and we barely had time enough to climb up into the passenger waiting area when it was time to go back to our car.
So tonight we are in this small city enroute to Stockholm. We are bad in our favorite hotel chain and we have a room that is familiar and welcome!! The weather driving here was very strange. The sun was shining brightly and every half hour or so it would just POUR down rain for about 2 minutes and then clear up. And it is quite windy and getting colder. The landscape is flat and wooded and I was hoping to see some wild life but no luck. There isn’t even any road kill, so there must not be too much going on in these woods! The most excitement we had was when we spotted 5 cows!! Pretty pathetic!
Don announced that he wanted Swedish meatballs for dinner so I looked at the menu as we signed in and the offerings were hysterical: Lasagna Bolognese, Mexican Taco Plate, Swedish Stew and some other non-descript stuff. I was highly amused that they offer an international cuisine at this little restaurant!!
For the first time we have had credit card trouble. We tried to charge our gas today and they wanted a PIN number for our credit card. I had been told by a friend that they had recently run into this and that it was REALLY inconvenient but I didn’t take it to heart and put PIN’s on all our cards, so we had to pay cash. Tonight I’m going to call the credit card company and see how to put PIN’s in our cards. Geez!! Just when you get something figured out they go and change it on you!!
Well, I called the bankcard people and they told me that the ONLY reason you would need a PIN is if you were making a cash withdrawal!! Interesting. They will not give a verbal PIN and told me that NOBODY should be asking or getting my PIN. Hm-m-m!! Well, we’ll see how it goes from here on out. What they said made really good sense to me so at least I can fight if somebody won’t take my credit card again!!
Had dinner at the hotel and Don said that it is the first decent food he’s had in 5 days!! He was as thrilled with the meals at the last place as was I!!! We would have eaten elsewhere but the hotel rate was all inclusive and we just felt like we should eat what we already had paid for!!! Silly….but true!!
Sweden has less English in it’s signage and I’m expecting to see and hear less and less English, although the hotel is very fluent in English.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Copenhagen
August 28, 2009, Friday
Copenhagen
Once again the weather looked great as we started out the door this morning. We wanted to go to the Royal Treasury to see all the gifts and gold and the royal jewels. It is in one of the oldest castles that is in this area and the Danes are quite proud of it. We got there and discovered that if we timed our visit right, we would be able to see the changing of the guard and so that’s exactly what we did. All that pomp and silliness that these folks go through but it really is fun to watch. At the treasury there were soldiers marching back and forth with a gun over their shoulder and they would speak to the visitors and weren’t all solemn and staid and at one point one of them came near me and I turned to have some fun with him and he said ,”Get away!! You must stay 2 meters away from me!” Yikes!! I’m not at all sure what he would have done if I had gone any closer but he was dead serious that I HAD to stay away from him. Do you suppose that he was afraid of this lil ole lady? LOL
After visiting the royal palace and the crown jewels, we decided that we could walk to the canal boat ride. Sadly we didn’t know where we were going and we had left our map in our room so we started asking people and it got downright funny. First we would be sent one way and then we would be sent another way. We saw LOTS of Copenhagen before I finally recognized a place we had been and I thought that the canal tours were just across the park. Sure enough!! We FINALLY reached our goal!! It felt good to sit down and ride for a while!! I really never realized that Copenhagen is very much like Venice in that it is laced with canals and there are boats and houseboats everywhere. We had a lovely boat tour and it was nice to see many of the places from a different perspective. It had become very dark and threatening and I was sure that we were going to be in a downpour for our ride but it never started to rain until we were within sight of the dock!! And then it poured and I got soaked. Don was carrying the bag with some shopping and so he was able to cover himself a little bit. But the rain didn’t last long and by the time we walked home we were dry.
I’ve uploaded all my pictures so far onto the web album but I’m not too sure how to access it!! When I get that figured out I’ll post a note. We’ve now seen all of Copenhagen that we wanted to see except Tivoli Gardens and we are saving that for when we come back through. We’ve been back and forth past it and we hear people laughing and screaming on the rides but we haven’t stuck our noses in the park yet.
Just got back from another fabulous dinner. Tonight we had the casserole dish filled with rice, some rust colored sauce and a miniature slice of something that tasted suspiciously like hot dog. More nasty brown bread with seeds and fruit. Ugh!!
Then we decided to get ready to go on the road tomorrow so we went to the car to put our shopping and dirty clothes in it. Well mercy me!! There on our windshield were THREE tickets. One for each day so far. I took them to the front desk and announced that they didn’t look like good news and the girl told me that each one was for 500DK (approximately $100. This was definitely not good news but I was pretty sure that we were going to handle them the same way we took care of the Hungarian ticket---ignore them. In fact, she asked where our car was from and when we told her she advised us to ignore them, so I guess we are going to be fugitives from Danish justice!! Egads!!
There is a REALLY popular bar next door to our hotel that is affiliated with our hotel and tonight there are people lined up for it so I was asking our hotel staff about it and it is a really different place. Apparently you are issued a big thick parka when you go in to it. It is called an “icebar” and it is literally all ice. The glasses are ice, the chairs are ice, the bar is ice and everything is kept at C-5 degrees (about F 20 degrees). We would have peeked in but there is a 200DK cover charge and nobody that I’ve seen looks over the age of 25, so we are taking a pass!!
Copenhagen
Once again the weather looked great as we started out the door this morning. We wanted to go to the Royal Treasury to see all the gifts and gold and the royal jewels. It is in one of the oldest castles that is in this area and the Danes are quite proud of it. We got there and discovered that if we timed our visit right, we would be able to see the changing of the guard and so that’s exactly what we did. All that pomp and silliness that these folks go through but it really is fun to watch. At the treasury there were soldiers marching back and forth with a gun over their shoulder and they would speak to the visitors and weren’t all solemn and staid and at one point one of them came near me and I turned to have some fun with him and he said ,”Get away!! You must stay 2 meters away from me!” Yikes!! I’m not at all sure what he would have done if I had gone any closer but he was dead serious that I HAD to stay away from him. Do you suppose that he was afraid of this lil ole lady? LOL
After visiting the royal palace and the crown jewels, we decided that we could walk to the canal boat ride. Sadly we didn’t know where we were going and we had left our map in our room so we started asking people and it got downright funny. First we would be sent one way and then we would be sent another way. We saw LOTS of Copenhagen before I finally recognized a place we had been and I thought that the canal tours were just across the park. Sure enough!! We FINALLY reached our goal!! It felt good to sit down and ride for a while!! I really never realized that Copenhagen is very much like Venice in that it is laced with canals and there are boats and houseboats everywhere. We had a lovely boat tour and it was nice to see many of the places from a different perspective. It had become very dark and threatening and I was sure that we were going to be in a downpour for our ride but it never started to rain until we were within sight of the dock!! And then it poured and I got soaked. Don was carrying the bag with some shopping and so he was able to cover himself a little bit. But the rain didn’t last long and by the time we walked home we were dry.
I’ve uploaded all my pictures so far onto the web album but I’m not too sure how to access it!! When I get that figured out I’ll post a note. We’ve now seen all of Copenhagen that we wanted to see except Tivoli Gardens and we are saving that for when we come back through. We’ve been back and forth past it and we hear people laughing and screaming on the rides but we haven’t stuck our noses in the park yet.
Just got back from another fabulous dinner. Tonight we had the casserole dish filled with rice, some rust colored sauce and a miniature slice of something that tasted suspiciously like hot dog. More nasty brown bread with seeds and fruit. Ugh!!
Then we decided to get ready to go on the road tomorrow so we went to the car to put our shopping and dirty clothes in it. Well mercy me!! There on our windshield were THREE tickets. One for each day so far. I took them to the front desk and announced that they didn’t look like good news and the girl told me that each one was for 500DK (approximately $100. This was definitely not good news but I was pretty sure that we were going to handle them the same way we took care of the Hungarian ticket---ignore them. In fact, she asked where our car was from and when we told her she advised us to ignore them, so I guess we are going to be fugitives from Danish justice!! Egads!!
There is a REALLY popular bar next door to our hotel that is affiliated with our hotel and tonight there are people lined up for it so I was asking our hotel staff about it and it is a really different place. Apparently you are issued a big thick parka when you go in to it. It is called an “icebar” and it is literally all ice. The glasses are ice, the chairs are ice, the bar is ice and everything is kept at C-5 degrees (about F 20 degrees). We would have peeked in but there is a 200DK cover charge and nobody that I’ve seen looks over the age of 25, so we are taking a pass!!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Copenhagen
August 27, 2009, Friday
Copenhagen
Another picture perfect day and we were up early and out to the sightseeing bus. We have a two day pass which allows us to do touristy thing in the city and we spent today traveling around to see what all there is to see. I was determined to see Christiania, the hippie city within the city of Copenhagen. This city came into being when a group of “hippies” took over an abandoned area that had house the military and they staged a sit-in of sorts and finally the city just let them squat and they have set up a whole community. Photos are not supposed to be taken but I managed to sneak a couple of shots. Mostly the community is just dirt paths and brick buildings that contain businesses and places where people live. There is all manor of drug paraphernalia on sale and posters advocating legalization of marijuana. Since Jean collects decks of cards, I bought her a deck where the backs are displaying a beautiful marijuana leaf!! I wonder if our naïve little friend will recognize it!!
People and dogs galore are sprawled everywhere and most are drinking beer and smoking. I only caught one small whiff of marijuana and so I was a bit disappointed but….. Every building was covered with graffiti in many colors and actually it is quite a festive look. They have a stage and pavilion and I wonder if they have rock concerts. There was music blasting from most buildings and most of it was music from the 60’s and 70’s. The majority of people hanging around were older, although few were from the flower child generation. It was definitely worth seeing.
I found no-nut, no-weird stuff bread and I may now survive!! There just isn’t much food except bread and if you don’t like their strange bread, you are in trouble!! For breakfast I made a ham sandwich with the HOTTEST mustard I’ve run across!! No lunch because we were on the bus and for dinner we had the usual tiny casserole dish, tonight half full of mixed vegetables in a rice with some sort of sweetish sauce and a piece of chicken that was approximately 3 inches long by ½ inch wide and no thicker than a slice of thick bacon!! You fill in with bread, sliced tomatoes, cold green beans and carrots and for dessert, you get cheese and wasa brod type crackers. Seriously bad food!!
Prices: a small glass of house brand white wine is $13, a small bottle of water is $5 and a small bottle of coke or ginger ale is $5. Life here is good but it is expensive. I find it better to just get whatever I want and try not to think about the price!!
Copenhagen
Another picture perfect day and we were up early and out to the sightseeing bus. We have a two day pass which allows us to do touristy thing in the city and we spent today traveling around to see what all there is to see. I was determined to see Christiania, the hippie city within the city of Copenhagen. This city came into being when a group of “hippies” took over an abandoned area that had house the military and they staged a sit-in of sorts and finally the city just let them squat and they have set up a whole community. Photos are not supposed to be taken but I managed to sneak a couple of shots. Mostly the community is just dirt paths and brick buildings that contain businesses and places where people live. There is all manor of drug paraphernalia on sale and posters advocating legalization of marijuana. Since Jean collects decks of cards, I bought her a deck where the backs are displaying a beautiful marijuana leaf!! I wonder if our naïve little friend will recognize it!!
People and dogs galore are sprawled everywhere and most are drinking beer and smoking. I only caught one small whiff of marijuana and so I was a bit disappointed but….. Every building was covered with graffiti in many colors and actually it is quite a festive look. They have a stage and pavilion and I wonder if they have rock concerts. There was music blasting from most buildings and most of it was music from the 60’s and 70’s. The majority of people hanging around were older, although few were from the flower child generation. It was definitely worth seeing.
I found no-nut, no-weird stuff bread and I may now survive!! There just isn’t much food except bread and if you don’t like their strange bread, you are in trouble!! For breakfast I made a ham sandwich with the HOTTEST mustard I’ve run across!! No lunch because we were on the bus and for dinner we had the usual tiny casserole dish, tonight half full of mixed vegetables in a rice with some sort of sweetish sauce and a piece of chicken that was approximately 3 inches long by ½ inch wide and no thicker than a slice of thick bacon!! You fill in with bread, sliced tomatoes, cold green beans and carrots and for dessert, you get cheese and wasa brod type crackers. Seriously bad food!!
Prices: a small glass of house brand white wine is $13, a small bottle of water is $5 and a small bottle of coke or ginger ale is $5. Life here is good but it is expensive. I find it better to just get whatever I want and try not to think about the price!!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Copenhagen
August 26, 2009, Wednesday
Copenhagen
Looked kind of dark first thing this morning and it was cool enough that a sweater felt good but the day perked up and turned out to be a beauty. We decided that the room was just TOO small (mostly the bed was too small) and so first thing we did was change rooms!! Apparently the Danes have a different idea of what constitutes a double room. They feel that a bed that is 120 cm wide is plenty wide for two people. Hahahahha!! Not!! Neither of us slept worth a darn and it just isn’t worth it to feel tired all day, so we changed to a room with a REAL bed in it and we are going to be much happier. But their rooms here are very small. There is nothing extra in the rooms and every bit of space is used. It is almost like they are short of land and need to conserve. I think it is the Scandinavian way.
Breakfast was also less than ideal. The bread all looked like brown bread with nasty stuff like seeds and strange fruit in it. I remember their eggs are very strange because they feed their chickens weird stuff that makes the eggs taste bad so I decided that cereal seemed like the safest bet. Wrong! What appeared to be corn flakes tasted like cardboard and their milk looked like skim milk but tasted strange. It could be a long vacation if this is going to be the usual morning fare!! Ah well. Another vacation—another diet!!.
Today we walked up and down the Stroget, the main pedestrian street of Copenhagen. I found the mobiles that I was looking for and dropped a fortune on them!! They are SO wonderful!! I enjoyed checking out the furniture and the modern Danish home furnishings. And of course I stopped in to Royal Copenhagen!!
They have lots of street vendors and street performers and a wonderful large park in the middle of town where they have a fascinating exhibition of innovations to improve society. Most of the things revolved around renewable sources of energy but there was one project where houses are being built for less than $700 and are able to withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters. Quite amazing stuff.
The currency here is difficult to fathom. It goes like this: one dollar fifty cents is worth about 1 euro and 7 kroner are worth about 1 euro. And everything costs hundreds of kroners, so it seems incredibly expensive!! Actually, things here are more expensive than in the states but not a huge amount more. Mostly it just seems expensive because everything is multiplied by about 5…..500 kroner sounds way more expensive than $100!!!!!!
Off to dinner. Another adventure in eating! Stay tuned!
The dinners are included in the price of the hotel and tonight it was almost identical to last night except that the “main course” was different. You grab a plate and silverware and napkin and then start rooting around for the food. They have a small casserole dish, about the size of a small Pyrex bowl and that contains the ‘main course”. Last night there was a small chunk of meat (about 1 ½ inch square) in a gravy with mushrooms and mystery stuff. The meat turned out to be pork. It actually was quite tasty although mighty skimpy. Tonight was the same casserole dish with perhaps ¼ cup of rice a VERY small chunk of salmon and some green stuff sprinkled on top (dill and ???). You can get bread (more brown, seedy, fruity stuff), cold green beans and carrots, sliced tomatoes with onions and celery and greens. There are several kinds of vinegars and oils to dress the tomatoes and greens. That’s it…….except for dessert, which is cheese and biscuits and cut up oranges. No wonder these folks are thin and healthy!!
Tomorrow is Little Mermaid and Flower Child Day!!
Copenhagen
Looked kind of dark first thing this morning and it was cool enough that a sweater felt good but the day perked up and turned out to be a beauty. We decided that the room was just TOO small (mostly the bed was too small) and so first thing we did was change rooms!! Apparently the Danes have a different idea of what constitutes a double room. They feel that a bed that is 120 cm wide is plenty wide for two people. Hahahahha!! Not!! Neither of us slept worth a darn and it just isn’t worth it to feel tired all day, so we changed to a room with a REAL bed in it and we are going to be much happier. But their rooms here are very small. There is nothing extra in the rooms and every bit of space is used. It is almost like they are short of land and need to conserve. I think it is the Scandinavian way.
Breakfast was also less than ideal. The bread all looked like brown bread with nasty stuff like seeds and strange fruit in it. I remember their eggs are very strange because they feed their chickens weird stuff that makes the eggs taste bad so I decided that cereal seemed like the safest bet. Wrong! What appeared to be corn flakes tasted like cardboard and their milk looked like skim milk but tasted strange. It could be a long vacation if this is going to be the usual morning fare!! Ah well. Another vacation—another diet!!.
Today we walked up and down the Stroget, the main pedestrian street of Copenhagen. I found the mobiles that I was looking for and dropped a fortune on them!! They are SO wonderful!! I enjoyed checking out the furniture and the modern Danish home furnishings. And of course I stopped in to Royal Copenhagen!!
They have lots of street vendors and street performers and a wonderful large park in the middle of town where they have a fascinating exhibition of innovations to improve society. Most of the things revolved around renewable sources of energy but there was one project where houses are being built for less than $700 and are able to withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters. Quite amazing stuff.
The currency here is difficult to fathom. It goes like this: one dollar fifty cents is worth about 1 euro and 7 kroner are worth about 1 euro. And everything costs hundreds of kroners, so it seems incredibly expensive!! Actually, things here are more expensive than in the states but not a huge amount more. Mostly it just seems expensive because everything is multiplied by about 5…..500 kroner sounds way more expensive than $100!!!!!!
Off to dinner. Another adventure in eating! Stay tuned!
The dinners are included in the price of the hotel and tonight it was almost identical to last night except that the “main course” was different. You grab a plate and silverware and napkin and then start rooting around for the food. They have a small casserole dish, about the size of a small Pyrex bowl and that contains the ‘main course”. Last night there was a small chunk of meat (about 1 ½ inch square) in a gravy with mushrooms and mystery stuff. The meat turned out to be pork. It actually was quite tasty although mighty skimpy. Tonight was the same casserole dish with perhaps ¼ cup of rice a VERY small chunk of salmon and some green stuff sprinkled on top (dill and ???). You can get bread (more brown, seedy, fruity stuff), cold green beans and carrots, sliced tomatoes with onions and celery and greens. There are several kinds of vinegars and oils to dress the tomatoes and greens. That’s it…….except for dessert, which is cheese and biscuits and cut up oranges. No wonder these folks are thin and healthy!!
Tomorrow is Little Mermaid and Flower Child Day!!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Copenhagen
August 25, 2009, Tuesday
Copenhagen
Today has been rather dark but so far no rain although it has been forecast. We finally arrived in Copenhagen after an eventful day. We spent over an hour in a traffic jam that ultimately got us to a ferry where we had to board and get across some body of water to enter Denmark!! We did not know we were going to be ferrying but it was fine. The boat was VERY modern and sold all manner of stuff….duty free. People were loading up on gift type items and cosmetics. The prices didn’t seem to be particularly good and I needed nothing but it is always fun to look. When we got to the hotel it was an experience.
The check in was mysterious. First off, the check in desk looked like a butcher block square in the middle of the room and there were 4-5 girls standing around chatting and laughing and generally having a wonderful time. I kept looking around to see if there was a desk of some sort so I could check in. I didn’t see anything but finally decided to walk down the hall to see if there was something further down the hall. As I turned, one of girls asked if she could help me!!! And then she was SO snotty that I was ready to walk out. She said, “You know you booked a double bed” I said that I knew this and she said, “Well it’s kind of small.” I asked if there was something special about it that I didn’t understand and she just looked at me and allowed that it was okay. Then I asked her where to park the car. She told me we could park on the street or in the hotel garage. The street is metered and she told me to go and read the meter to find out how much it cost. The garage is DK200/day. So I went out to read the meter and figured that MAYBE I might be able to decipher it but no luck, so back in I went and asked her if she would please read it for me. Well, you would have thought I’d asked her to pay for the parking!! She sighed and moaned and came outside and told me that it was an hourly fee. Duh!! I had to ask her HOW MUCH and she said that she didn’t know because she didn’t have a car. I asked if it didn’t say on the meter and she then told me that it was free form 12a-8a, DK28/hour 8a-5p and DK10/hour 5p-12a. Clearly it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the garage is cheaper so I asked her how to get to the garage. God have mercy!! This almost sent her around the bend!! It seems that the hotel doesn’t keep track of the garage and it is just first come first served. You have to walk down the ramp into the garage, find a spot and then run up, get the car and park it quickly. Whew!!
The car is parked and we are in our room with the “tiny” double bed (just a standard double) and all is well in our world. The room is hysterical though. It is the size of a thimble!! The only decent place to sit is the desk or the bed as the chair is covered with one of our bags!! You can barely turn around in it and maybe that is why she felt that it was possibly not suitable. Heck!! I don‘t care. It is clean and I’m not planning to spend much time in it, so what difference does it make if it is small?
Both dinner and breakfast come with the price of the room, so this should be interesting!! I can hardly wait to see what they serve!! The Internet is free!! The first place with free wifi that I don’t have to pirate!! Yippee!! Tonight I can call friends and family!
Copenhagen
Today has been rather dark but so far no rain although it has been forecast. We finally arrived in Copenhagen after an eventful day. We spent over an hour in a traffic jam that ultimately got us to a ferry where we had to board and get across some body of water to enter Denmark!! We did not know we were going to be ferrying but it was fine. The boat was VERY modern and sold all manner of stuff….duty free. People were loading up on gift type items and cosmetics. The prices didn’t seem to be particularly good and I needed nothing but it is always fun to look. When we got to the hotel it was an experience.
The check in was mysterious. First off, the check in desk looked like a butcher block square in the middle of the room and there were 4-5 girls standing around chatting and laughing and generally having a wonderful time. I kept looking around to see if there was a desk of some sort so I could check in. I didn’t see anything but finally decided to walk down the hall to see if there was something further down the hall. As I turned, one of girls asked if she could help me!!! And then she was SO snotty that I was ready to walk out. She said, “You know you booked a double bed” I said that I knew this and she said, “Well it’s kind of small.” I asked if there was something special about it that I didn’t understand and she just looked at me and allowed that it was okay. Then I asked her where to park the car. She told me we could park on the street or in the hotel garage. The street is metered and she told me to go and read the meter to find out how much it cost. The garage is DK200/day. So I went out to read the meter and figured that MAYBE I might be able to decipher it but no luck, so back in I went and asked her if she would please read it for me. Well, you would have thought I’d asked her to pay for the parking!! She sighed and moaned and came outside and told me that it was an hourly fee. Duh!! I had to ask her HOW MUCH and she said that she didn’t know because she didn’t have a car. I asked if it didn’t say on the meter and she then told me that it was free form 12a-8a, DK28/hour 8a-5p and DK10/hour 5p-12a. Clearly it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the garage is cheaper so I asked her how to get to the garage. God have mercy!! This almost sent her around the bend!! It seems that the hotel doesn’t keep track of the garage and it is just first come first served. You have to walk down the ramp into the garage, find a spot and then run up, get the car and park it quickly. Whew!!
The car is parked and we are in our room with the “tiny” double bed (just a standard double) and all is well in our world. The room is hysterical though. It is the size of a thimble!! The only decent place to sit is the desk or the bed as the chair is covered with one of our bags!! You can barely turn around in it and maybe that is why she felt that it was possibly not suitable. Heck!! I don‘t care. It is clean and I’m not planning to spend much time in it, so what difference does it make if it is small?
Both dinner and breakfast come with the price of the room, so this should be interesting!! I can hardly wait to see what they serve!! The Internet is free!! The first place with free wifi that I don’t have to pirate!! Yippee!! Tonight I can call friends and family!
Amsterdam and Hamburg
August 23 and 24, 2009
Amsterdam and Hamburg
I posted today’s message before we went out to dinner and it is a good thing that I did because the Internet service here is VERY sketchy. So we were very tired and wanted to eat close by and there is a little pub about half a block away where we went. These places are so funny. There were 7 tables in the whole place and most of them would accommodate 4 people but one of them held 6 and then ours was a long table with places for 12. When we went in, all the tables had folks sitting at them except the BIG table and so we stood at the door looking pitiful. Some older man who was beyond harried came flying up to us and indicated that we should sit at the big table. He then flew off to not be seen again for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, another old fellow was rushing in and out of the back with plates of food and drinks. Eventually one of them approached and in perfect English asked us what we wanted to drink and gave us 2 menus. I guessed we LOOKed American but later discovered that they converse with all strangers in English!! Soon a family of 4 joined us at the far end of the table and they didn’t speak to us but amused themselves by playing tiddly-winks with the drink coasters!! They allowed us to order one meal to share and we were really glad that we did because when the “steak” arrived it was the size of a roast!! And it looked a bit like a roast, thick, no particular shape and tough. Ah well, it tasted fine and we ate it, the accompanying French fries and a most peculiar but tasty tossed salad. Just before we left, a young girl came in and we found out that she was from New York and was visiting until tomorrow, when she will fly home. I found myself not being sure if one was supposed to keep to themselves when at a large table with lots of strangers or if you were supposed to make friends. Very strange. Nobody in America would put up with these situations but it is very practical and works just fine. It’s fun to mix with the locals and see how they live.
Up bright and early and on the road to Hamburg. Got “lost” twice but managed to get back on track with a minimal amount of wear and tear (ie, yelling and screaming). We drove directly in to our hotel and I thought all was well when Don blithely drove right on past it!! Oh boy!! Now we were in for some fun. The signs are totally foreign and we didn’t know which streets were one way, whether we could turn, yikes!! Horns were honking and we wee both getting REALLY stressed when all of a sudden we were bak at the hotel and in we turned……….only to have him turn onto the sidewalk and try to park in the front hotel lobby!! Holy cow!! I was yelling and trying to get him to stop and we were a sight to behold but he finally “got it” and backed out and drove on into the parking garage. Was I ever glad to get out of that car today!!!
Dinner tonight was in the hotel and it was delicious!! I ate so much I’m not sure if I’m going to pop or not but it was too good to pass up. Tomorrow starts our ‘real’ vacation. We arrive in Copenhagen and I’ve been boning up on all the good things we need to see while there.
No Internet here unless I want to pay big bucks and I don’t, so I used the free computer in the lobby to see if anything important is happening at home. Since all seems to be well with the world, I am not buying Internet time. Speaking of ‘well with the world’, we are very pleased to see the Dow is over 9600. Yippee!! And on top of that, the Euro is only 1.40 to the dollar instead of the 1.75 it was. Ah, life is good!!
Thoughts on Toilet Paper
The French and the Dutch don’t seem to have nearly the high regard for their bottoms that the Germans seem to have; as evidenced by the quality of the toilet paper. Paper in France and the Netherlands was harsh, rough and thin. Here the TP has more substance and is much softer. On top of that, the Kleenex brand is so proud of itself that it has printed its name on every 5th square!! Go America!!
Amsterdam and Hamburg
I posted today’s message before we went out to dinner and it is a good thing that I did because the Internet service here is VERY sketchy. So we were very tired and wanted to eat close by and there is a little pub about half a block away where we went. These places are so funny. There were 7 tables in the whole place and most of them would accommodate 4 people but one of them held 6 and then ours was a long table with places for 12. When we went in, all the tables had folks sitting at them except the BIG table and so we stood at the door looking pitiful. Some older man who was beyond harried came flying up to us and indicated that we should sit at the big table. He then flew off to not be seen again for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, another old fellow was rushing in and out of the back with plates of food and drinks. Eventually one of them approached and in perfect English asked us what we wanted to drink and gave us 2 menus. I guessed we LOOKed American but later discovered that they converse with all strangers in English!! Soon a family of 4 joined us at the far end of the table and they didn’t speak to us but amused themselves by playing tiddly-winks with the drink coasters!! They allowed us to order one meal to share and we were really glad that we did because when the “steak” arrived it was the size of a roast!! And it looked a bit like a roast, thick, no particular shape and tough. Ah well, it tasted fine and we ate it, the accompanying French fries and a most peculiar but tasty tossed salad. Just before we left, a young girl came in and we found out that she was from New York and was visiting until tomorrow, when she will fly home. I found myself not being sure if one was supposed to keep to themselves when at a large table with lots of strangers or if you were supposed to make friends. Very strange. Nobody in America would put up with these situations but it is very practical and works just fine. It’s fun to mix with the locals and see how they live.
Up bright and early and on the road to Hamburg. Got “lost” twice but managed to get back on track with a minimal amount of wear and tear (ie, yelling and screaming). We drove directly in to our hotel and I thought all was well when Don blithely drove right on past it!! Oh boy!! Now we were in for some fun. The signs are totally foreign and we didn’t know which streets were one way, whether we could turn, yikes!! Horns were honking and we wee both getting REALLY stressed when all of a sudden we were bak at the hotel and in we turned……….only to have him turn onto the sidewalk and try to park in the front hotel lobby!! Holy cow!! I was yelling and trying to get him to stop and we were a sight to behold but he finally “got it” and backed out and drove on into the parking garage. Was I ever glad to get out of that car today!!!
Dinner tonight was in the hotel and it was delicious!! I ate so much I’m not sure if I’m going to pop or not but it was too good to pass up. Tomorrow starts our ‘real’ vacation. We arrive in Copenhagen and I’ve been boning up on all the good things we need to see while there.
No Internet here unless I want to pay big bucks and I don’t, so I used the free computer in the lobby to see if anything important is happening at home. Since all seems to be well with the world, I am not buying Internet time. Speaking of ‘well with the world’, we are very pleased to see the Dow is over 9600. Yippee!! And on top of that, the Euro is only 1.40 to the dollar instead of the 1.75 it was. Ah, life is good!!
Thoughts on Toilet Paper
The French and the Dutch don’t seem to have nearly the high regard for their bottoms that the Germans seem to have; as evidenced by the quality of the toilet paper. Paper in France and the Netherlands was harsh, rough and thin. Here the TP has more substance and is much softer. On top of that, the Kleenex brand is so proud of itself that it has printed its name on every 5th square!! Go America!!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Amsterdam
August 23, 2009, Sunday
Amsterdam
Today we did museums and I feel so cultured I’m practically yogurt!! First we did the Rembrandt Museum and I was really fascinated by the fact that not all of his work was dark, drab ugly people! I’ve just always thought of him as being really dark and depressing but much of the work here is light and uplifting. I made the usual arrangement with Don that I’d go at my pace and he could go at his pace and I’d wait for him at the end, however, after I had done 4 rooms, I went back looking for him and he was barely inside room one, so I gave him the word that I would wait for him but not all day long!!! Next thing I knew he had almost caught up with me!! I really didn’t have to wait long for him at all!
Next we decided to do a city tour on the hop on hop off bus. It wasn’t around last year and we found out that it didn’t have the hop on hop off license yet so once you got on you were on until you got back at the beginning. That was fine with us and so we went for a nice little ride and saw the whole city. We were both really surprised at how small Amsterdam really is.
After the bus ride we decided to visit the diamond museum but that was a joke and was mostly a tour of a few guys polishing diamonds and then a sales pitch and .the “opportunity” to buy diamonds at seriously inflated prices. At the very end of the tour they were selling Swarovski stuff and I was amused that they were pushing anything that sparkled---from $65,000 diamonds to $300 cut glass!! I guess the $30 sparkly tee shirts were outside the door!
Then we were hungry and we got a warm waffle sprinkled with powdered sugar. How decadent!! And delicious!! Fully restored, we were off to the VanGogh Museum and we cruised through there. It is a very modern and light museum and is the most popular and most visited museum in Amsterdam. It was packed today but people were generally pleasant and didn’t push or shove and you could see everything you wished to see.
So then the day was pretty well gone and we were both pooped so we crawled back to our hotel and now we are trying to figure out how to have food brought in!! LOL I just do NOT feel like walking any further today but that isn’t an option so we will rest for a while and then truck off to a local restaurant to find some food.
Once again we have had wonderful weather. How long can all this goodness last????
.
Amsterdam
Today we did museums and I feel so cultured I’m practically yogurt!! First we did the Rembrandt Museum and I was really fascinated by the fact that not all of his work was dark, drab ugly people! I’ve just always thought of him as being really dark and depressing but much of the work here is light and uplifting. I made the usual arrangement with Don that I’d go at my pace and he could go at his pace and I’d wait for him at the end, however, after I had done 4 rooms, I went back looking for him and he was barely inside room one, so I gave him the word that I would wait for him but not all day long!!! Next thing I knew he had almost caught up with me!! I really didn’t have to wait long for him at all!
Next we decided to do a city tour on the hop on hop off bus. It wasn’t around last year and we found out that it didn’t have the hop on hop off license yet so once you got on you were on until you got back at the beginning. That was fine with us and so we went for a nice little ride and saw the whole city. We were both really surprised at how small Amsterdam really is.
After the bus ride we decided to visit the diamond museum but that was a joke and was mostly a tour of a few guys polishing diamonds and then a sales pitch and .the “opportunity” to buy diamonds at seriously inflated prices. At the very end of the tour they were selling Swarovski stuff and I was amused that they were pushing anything that sparkled---from $65,000 diamonds to $300 cut glass!! I guess the $30 sparkly tee shirts were outside the door!
Then we were hungry and we got a warm waffle sprinkled with powdered sugar. How decadent!! And delicious!! Fully restored, we were off to the VanGogh Museum and we cruised through there. It is a very modern and light museum and is the most popular and most visited museum in Amsterdam. It was packed today but people were generally pleasant and didn’t push or shove and you could see everything you wished to see.
So then the day was pretty well gone and we were both pooped so we crawled back to our hotel and now we are trying to figure out how to have food brought in!! LOL I just do NOT feel like walking any further today but that isn’t an option so we will rest for a while and then truck off to a local restaurant to find some food.
Once again we have had wonderful weather. How long can all this goodness last????
.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Amsterdam
August 22, 2009 Saturday
Amsterdam
I remembered to set the alarm last night so we got up at a decent hour and got on the road. Today was our longest driving day of the entire trip and Don didn’t sleep all that well last night so he wasn’t looking forward to the drive. Of course, he wouldn’t even consider allowing me to drive!!
I had forgotten about the European bedding and how difficult it is to manage. They use a bottom sheet but no top sheet---just a HUGE comforter that is stuffed into a pillow case like cover. And it is VERY warm. I feel quite certain that you could easily survive a -50 degree temperature with one of these coverlet’s and I’m not sure what one is supposed to do with them in the summer. Our friend Jake just swears by these things but I’m not sure how he copes. I find that I stick out a leg or an arm for a while and then that gets cold so I have to twist around and stick something else out. If I stay under the cover, I wind up in a puddle of sweat and feel like a drowned rat. Eventually I’ll again acclimate myself to them but it takes me a while to get them figured out so I can get a good night’s rest.
The weather is just perfect and we had an uneventful drive. The toll road that we were on for a short time cost €14.60. That’s about $20 US. These folks just do not mess around with tolls!! And parking is similarly priced. We paid € 15 per nite in Paris and will pay € 20 per nite here. There just isn’t anyplace to park on the streets and our car is marked as a tourist car because it has a bright RED license plate and those are reserved for folks with buy back cars!! We’ve been very fortunate that we have not had a break in to our car but we aren’t going to take unnecessary chances. Last year we didn’t know what the red license meant and ignorance was bliss but now we know and we’ve been warned that these plates target cars.
We got in to the same hotel where we stayed last year and it is like being home!! They didn’t have our same room but it is very similar and we are happy. The shower is like totally HUGE in comparison to the one in Paris……as is the room.
We walked down to the large town square and found a very nice place for dinner. The Dover Sole was to die for!! Then we wandered back with an ice cream cone in hand and we are stuffed and ready for good nights sleep!
In the middle of the town square are two structures that are about 5 feet tall and divided into 4 distinct quadrants. In each quadrant is what looks like a funnel. When I first looked at them I was mildly puzzled…..and then I looked again and there were two men in two different quadrants urinating!! Ah, the freedom and openness of Europe…and we haven’t even hit Scandinavia!!!
Tomorrow we are going to wander around the city because this is one of our favorite places.
Amsterdam
I remembered to set the alarm last night so we got up at a decent hour and got on the road. Today was our longest driving day of the entire trip and Don didn’t sleep all that well last night so he wasn’t looking forward to the drive. Of course, he wouldn’t even consider allowing me to drive!!
I had forgotten about the European bedding and how difficult it is to manage. They use a bottom sheet but no top sheet---just a HUGE comforter that is stuffed into a pillow case like cover. And it is VERY warm. I feel quite certain that you could easily survive a -50 degree temperature with one of these coverlet’s and I’m not sure what one is supposed to do with them in the summer. Our friend Jake just swears by these things but I’m not sure how he copes. I find that I stick out a leg or an arm for a while and then that gets cold so I have to twist around and stick something else out. If I stay under the cover, I wind up in a puddle of sweat and feel like a drowned rat. Eventually I’ll again acclimate myself to them but it takes me a while to get them figured out so I can get a good night’s rest.
The weather is just perfect and we had an uneventful drive. The toll road that we were on for a short time cost €14.60. That’s about $20 US. These folks just do not mess around with tolls!! And parking is similarly priced. We paid € 15 per nite in Paris and will pay € 20 per nite here. There just isn’t anyplace to park on the streets and our car is marked as a tourist car because it has a bright RED license plate and those are reserved for folks with buy back cars!! We’ve been very fortunate that we have not had a break in to our car but we aren’t going to take unnecessary chances. Last year we didn’t know what the red license meant and ignorance was bliss but now we know and we’ve been warned that these plates target cars.
We got in to the same hotel where we stayed last year and it is like being home!! They didn’t have our same room but it is very similar and we are happy. The shower is like totally HUGE in comparison to the one in Paris……as is the room.
We walked down to the large town square and found a very nice place for dinner. The Dover Sole was to die for!! Then we wandered back with an ice cream cone in hand and we are stuffed and ready for good nights sleep!
In the middle of the town square are two structures that are about 5 feet tall and divided into 4 distinct quadrants. In each quadrant is what looks like a funnel. When I first looked at them I was mildly puzzled…..and then I looked again and there were two men in two different quadrants urinating!! Ah, the freedom and openness of Europe…and we haven’t even hit Scandinavia!!!
Tomorrow we are going to wander around the city because this is one of our favorite places.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Paris
August 21, 2009 Friday
Paris
Made a mistake and forgot to set the alarm this morning. I had another “CCBA night” (couldn’t sleep) until about 3am. Well, Don must have been really tired too because he poked me and asked me what time it was and when I got my wits together and looked at the clock, it was 12:19pm!!!!!!!!! It appears that we aren’t over our jet lag yet! LOL We hauled out of bed and got ready to go to Sacre Coeur. But first we needed to eat and Don wanted BREAKFAST. I tried to explain that this as not going to be easy to find and maybe we should just stop in a bakery and get a croissant and some juice. After walking all around town and checking out every restaurant (which are really bars) and every café (which are also bars) he finally decided that perhaps I might be right. We went to a bakery and he asked the guy for a sweet roll. Poor fellow didn’t have a clue what Don wanted so I spotted a pastry that was loaded with chocolate chips and pointed it out. Don was happy and we each got one. Then we carried it up the street to the café and got coffee au lait and that was breakfast…at 1:00pm.
Finding Sacre Coeur was quite easy and it was fun to ride the Metro and watch all the people. It isn’t nearly as hot today as yesterday and I’m MUCH happier. The church is a huge tourist attraction and there are tourist shops everywhere you look. With lots and lots of people buying all sorts of junk. We saw a street “vendor” (I use the term loosely) who was running a shell game and he had three pieces that he was moving around and for € 100 you could guess where the one with the white dot was located. He had his shill and his mark and we watched the shill collect € 100 and the mark lose € 200. YIKES!! I wonder if the game is legal over here or if we just happened on a shady business!
When we finally got up to the church we were both winded in spite of taking the funicular for a bit of the climb. Don said to me that this church was not made for 80 year old men to attend!! Inside the church was pretty typical of all large cathedrals but the ceiling in this one had a huge picture of Christ painted with his arms spread open and the way it appeared on the ceiling, it made you feel like you were being embraced by him. Now this is not my usual take on religious things and I was surprised at my reaction but it was very real.
There were hundreds and hundreds of candles lit all over the cathedral. The large ones were € 10 and the small ones were € 2. Don said to me, “I wonder why the Jews didn’t come up with this plan to make money.” I told him that they knew how to make money in other ways and he promptly said that he bet the Jews were the guys who sold all the candles to the Catholics. Aye-yi-yi!! I picked up a small bookmark from the cathedral for Chris, my catholic friend.
I saw a really cute handbag that I think Kathy would like but it was being carried by a tourist and I couldn’t very well swipe it from her so I looked and looked to see if I could fid one but no luck. We sat on the steps of the cathedral and listened to a young man play his guitar and sings lots of familiar songs. He wasn’t very accomplished as a musician but he had lots of charm and he put his all into his performance and so it was well worth the time (and donation) spent. There was also a street performer who stood on top of a small concrete square and bounced a ball on his feet, arms, head and tossed it up in the air and caught it with his foot and rolled it around his back, etc. He was pretty good…kind of the Tiger Woods of the soccer ball.
We stopped at a street vendor and picked up a couple of delicious oranges and now we are back in our room, cooling off and resting after our big outing!! LOL I’m getting anxious to get on the road and get into Scandinavia. Paris is lively but it is not the purpose of this trip and I want to get on with it.
Last night I got attacked by a giant sycamore leaf (I thought it was a maple leaf). I was eating dinner and all of a sudden something went smack against my neck and it was this leaf that was at least 6 inches across! Scared the heck out of me!
Paris
Made a mistake and forgot to set the alarm this morning. I had another “CCBA night” (couldn’t sleep) until about 3am. Well, Don must have been really tired too because he poked me and asked me what time it was and when I got my wits together and looked at the clock, it was 12:19pm!!!!!!!!! It appears that we aren’t over our jet lag yet! LOL We hauled out of bed and got ready to go to Sacre Coeur. But first we needed to eat and Don wanted BREAKFAST. I tried to explain that this as not going to be easy to find and maybe we should just stop in a bakery and get a croissant and some juice. After walking all around town and checking out every restaurant (which are really bars) and every café (which are also bars) he finally decided that perhaps I might be right. We went to a bakery and he asked the guy for a sweet roll. Poor fellow didn’t have a clue what Don wanted so I spotted a pastry that was loaded with chocolate chips and pointed it out. Don was happy and we each got one. Then we carried it up the street to the café and got coffee au lait and that was breakfast…at 1:00pm.
Finding Sacre Coeur was quite easy and it was fun to ride the Metro and watch all the people. It isn’t nearly as hot today as yesterday and I’m MUCH happier. The church is a huge tourist attraction and there are tourist shops everywhere you look. With lots and lots of people buying all sorts of junk. We saw a street “vendor” (I use the term loosely) who was running a shell game and he had three pieces that he was moving around and for € 100 you could guess where the one with the white dot was located. He had his shill and his mark and we watched the shill collect € 100 and the mark lose € 200. YIKES!! I wonder if the game is legal over here or if we just happened on a shady business!
When we finally got up to the church we were both winded in spite of taking the funicular for a bit of the climb. Don said to me that this church was not made for 80 year old men to attend!! Inside the church was pretty typical of all large cathedrals but the ceiling in this one had a huge picture of Christ painted with his arms spread open and the way it appeared on the ceiling, it made you feel like you were being embraced by him. Now this is not my usual take on religious things and I was surprised at my reaction but it was very real.
There were hundreds and hundreds of candles lit all over the cathedral. The large ones were € 10 and the small ones were € 2. Don said to me, “I wonder why the Jews didn’t come up with this plan to make money.” I told him that they knew how to make money in other ways and he promptly said that he bet the Jews were the guys who sold all the candles to the Catholics. Aye-yi-yi!! I picked up a small bookmark from the cathedral for Chris, my catholic friend.
I saw a really cute handbag that I think Kathy would like but it was being carried by a tourist and I couldn’t very well swipe it from her so I looked and looked to see if I could fid one but no luck. We sat on the steps of the cathedral and listened to a young man play his guitar and sings lots of familiar songs. He wasn’t very accomplished as a musician but he had lots of charm and he put his all into his performance and so it was well worth the time (and donation) spent. There was also a street performer who stood on top of a small concrete square and bounced a ball on his feet, arms, head and tossed it up in the air and caught it with his foot and rolled it around his back, etc. He was pretty good…kind of the Tiger Woods of the soccer ball.
We stopped at a street vendor and picked up a couple of delicious oranges and now we are back in our room, cooling off and resting after our big outing!! LOL I’m getting anxious to get on the road and get into Scandinavia. Paris is lively but it is not the purpose of this trip and I want to get on with it.
Last night I got attacked by a giant sycamore leaf (I thought it was a maple leaf). I was eating dinner and all of a sudden something went smack against my neck and it was this leaf that was at least 6 inches across! Scared the heck out of me!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Paris
August 20, 2009 Thursday
Paris
We got up early ad took the bus and the train out to Versailles. It was a blistering hot day and eve though we had tickets, we stood in a very long line to get it. Then after we got in we were in hoards of people touring the Palace. I guess I’m just a warped individual but I was less than excited about it. It just seemed to me like one more REALLY big building filled with lovely ceiling art and dark pictures of old kings on the walls!! I was even disappointed in the Hall of Mirrors!! I don’t know what I thought it was going to be bit it just wasn’t the grand, mirrored place I had imagined. Perhaps the fact that it was crammed with people and it was hot and stuffy may have contributed to my disappointment. Ah well. I saw Versailles and I’m very glad that I got there but I will not be raving about what a terrific place it is!! By the time we got out the lines were all gone. I think we should have come later!!!
We feel pretty smart that we manage to get around the city with all the different kinds of transportation. Actually, the Metro and trains and buses are very well marked and if you pay attention to where you got on, you can always get back
There is a HUGE bird house for pigeons just a few blocks away from where we are staying and we spotted it this morning while we were on the bus, so when we got back, we decided to walk to it to see it up close and personal!. It is really interesting and I took all kinds of pictures of it! It is located in a lovely park that has a beautiful fountain, pool and lots of flowers as well as a vegetable garden complete with scarecrow. While we were there, a young man came up to Don and wanted Don to take his picture….with OUR camera!! Don realized that there was something wrong with the guy and blew him off and then the guy walked over to me and kind of fell into me almost knocking me off my feet!! It was SO weird. I finally got disentangled from him and the next thing we knew, a nicely dressed man came from the other side of the fountain and grabbed a park official. When we walked a bit further we were able to see that the young man had stepped into the pool with all his clothes and shoes on and had also placed his backpack in the pool!!!!!!! The park official was trying to convince him to get out!! Oh boy, there are nuts everywhere!
We are going back to our restaurant/bar tonight for dinner again!! I figure that there is no point in trying a new place when we found a place with such delightful food!! Tonight I’m getting the salmon with pasta. I saw it being served last night and it looked terrific. I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’m really looking forward to it.
Speaking of food, I had forgotten how dumb their breakfasts are. I always end up eating a croissant with cheese and a slice of ham tucked into it. Ham sandwiches for breakfast are just not my ideal but when in Rome (or Paris) do as………..
I HAVE to tell about our tiny shower. It wins the prize for the tiniest shower I’ve ever seen or been in. It is so funny!! If you move in it you either turn the water off (because you bumped into the faucet) or you fall out into the tiny bathroom!! The curtain likes to cling to your body and it is a stitch!! This morning I heard the shower going on and off and I finally asked Don what he was doing and he said that it was just easier to turn it off when he was washing than to fight to keep it going!!! I’m not sure but he may have foud the definitive solution!
Tomorrow Sacre Coeur.
Paris
We got up early ad took the bus and the train out to Versailles. It was a blistering hot day and eve though we had tickets, we stood in a very long line to get it. Then after we got in we were in hoards of people touring the Palace. I guess I’m just a warped individual but I was less than excited about it. It just seemed to me like one more REALLY big building filled with lovely ceiling art and dark pictures of old kings on the walls!! I was even disappointed in the Hall of Mirrors!! I don’t know what I thought it was going to be bit it just wasn’t the grand, mirrored place I had imagined. Perhaps the fact that it was crammed with people and it was hot and stuffy may have contributed to my disappointment. Ah well. I saw Versailles and I’m very glad that I got there but I will not be raving about what a terrific place it is!! By the time we got out the lines were all gone. I think we should have come later!!!
We feel pretty smart that we manage to get around the city with all the different kinds of transportation. Actually, the Metro and trains and buses are very well marked and if you pay attention to where you got on, you can always get back
There is a HUGE bird house for pigeons just a few blocks away from where we are staying and we spotted it this morning while we were on the bus, so when we got back, we decided to walk to it to see it up close and personal!. It is really interesting and I took all kinds of pictures of it! It is located in a lovely park that has a beautiful fountain, pool and lots of flowers as well as a vegetable garden complete with scarecrow. While we were there, a young man came up to Don and wanted Don to take his picture….with OUR camera!! Don realized that there was something wrong with the guy and blew him off and then the guy walked over to me and kind of fell into me almost knocking me off my feet!! It was SO weird. I finally got disentangled from him and the next thing we knew, a nicely dressed man came from the other side of the fountain and grabbed a park official. When we walked a bit further we were able to see that the young man had stepped into the pool with all his clothes and shoes on and had also placed his backpack in the pool!!!!!!! The park official was trying to convince him to get out!! Oh boy, there are nuts everywhere!
We are going back to our restaurant/bar tonight for dinner again!! I figure that there is no point in trying a new place when we found a place with such delightful food!! Tonight I’m getting the salmon with pasta. I saw it being served last night and it looked terrific. I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’m really looking forward to it.
Speaking of food, I had forgotten how dumb their breakfasts are. I always end up eating a croissant with cheese and a slice of ham tucked into it. Ham sandwiches for breakfast are just not my ideal but when in Rome (or Paris) do as………..
I HAVE to tell about our tiny shower. It wins the prize for the tiniest shower I’ve ever seen or been in. It is so funny!! If you move in it you either turn the water off (because you bumped into the faucet) or you fall out into the tiny bathroom!! The curtain likes to cling to your body and it is a stitch!! This morning I heard the shower going on and off and I finally asked Don what he was doing and he said that it was just easier to turn it off when he was washing than to fight to keep it going!!! I’m not sure but he may have foud the definitive solution!
Tomorrow Sacre Coeur.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Dublin and Paris
August 19, 2009, Wednesday
Paris
It has been a LONG day. Molly took us to the airport and we were able to march right towards the gate but Don got stopped in Security and they gave him the want several times and then isolated him in the glass box and some man was patting him down VERY thoroughly and finally they discovered that he had put his metal bookmark in his pocket!! I was starved and so I went to the food stand and the cheapest thing I could fine was a veggie wrap for $9. That didn’t sound too bad so I bought it with a bottle of water and almost $15 later I bit in to the strangest thing on earth. It had veggies in it that I couldn’t even recognize!! I ate about half of it and decided that I could wait for supper!!
There were a zillion kids on our flight and as we were waiting and listening to the screaming and pounding of little feet, Don turned to me and muttered that all people under the age of 12 should be banned on aircraft!! This from a confirmed child lover!! Actaully, our seats were very nice, right in the front of the plane. There was a single mother across the aisle from us with a rather new baby and a two year old but they were fie and I even got to baby sit the baby while she took the little to the bathroom. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve had to babysit!! I was thrilled!
The flight was a bit rough but not really awful and I managed to get some sleep. Don got none. He doesn’t even try. We arrived in Dublin almost an hour early so we had a 3 ½ hour layover and then sat in row 1 on the flight from Dublin to Paris. We picked up our little car and this year it is a nice beige color. WAY more personality than the black one of last year!
We are quite proud of ourselves in that we were able to drive directly to our hotel without one wrong turn. Our hotel is hysterical. It is so tiny that it almost doesn’t exist. The rooms are minute and we brought in all three of our bags so we could re-organize. I sent Don out to do something….anything…so I could move things around. Now the bags are WAY more manageable and we can leave the big one in the car and just bring in the small carry-ons. We were allowed twice as much luggage as we brought and I’m really glad that we aren’t pushing all the extra stuff around.
It is HOT over here. Almost 100 degrees F and they all think they are dying. Very few places in the commoner sections have A/C. Thank God our hotel has it and so does our car. We went out for dinner tonight and it is just brutal. So humid and HOT. But we found a lovely little restaurant/bar owned by a brother and sister and it was loaded with patrons so we decided that it must be good and it was. Don had the steak tartare (ick!!) and I had the best omelet I’ve ever had in my life. They didn’t want to serve him the steak tartare because they thought he didn’t know what it was and they didn’t know how to say that it was raw but when we explained that he REALLY has a streak of cannibal in him, out it came.
We are beat and so it’s off to bed. Tomorrow Versailles.
Paris
It has been a LONG day. Molly took us to the airport and we were able to march right towards the gate but Don got stopped in Security and they gave him the want several times and then isolated him in the glass box and some man was patting him down VERY thoroughly and finally they discovered that he had put his metal bookmark in his pocket!! I was starved and so I went to the food stand and the cheapest thing I could fine was a veggie wrap for $9. That didn’t sound too bad so I bought it with a bottle of water and almost $15 later I bit in to the strangest thing on earth. It had veggies in it that I couldn’t even recognize!! I ate about half of it and decided that I could wait for supper!!
There were a zillion kids on our flight and as we were waiting and listening to the screaming and pounding of little feet, Don turned to me and muttered that all people under the age of 12 should be banned on aircraft!! This from a confirmed child lover!! Actaully, our seats were very nice, right in the front of the plane. There was a single mother across the aisle from us with a rather new baby and a two year old but they were fie and I even got to baby sit the baby while she took the little to the bathroom. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve had to babysit!! I was thrilled!
The flight was a bit rough but not really awful and I managed to get some sleep. Don got none. He doesn’t even try. We arrived in Dublin almost an hour early so we had a 3 ½ hour layover and then sat in row 1 on the flight from Dublin to Paris. We picked up our little car and this year it is a nice beige color. WAY more personality than the black one of last year!
We are quite proud of ourselves in that we were able to drive directly to our hotel without one wrong turn. Our hotel is hysterical. It is so tiny that it almost doesn’t exist. The rooms are minute and we brought in all three of our bags so we could re-organize. I sent Don out to do something….anything…so I could move things around. Now the bags are WAY more manageable and we can leave the big one in the car and just bring in the small carry-ons. We were allowed twice as much luggage as we brought and I’m really glad that we aren’t pushing all the extra stuff around.
It is HOT over here. Almost 100 degrees F and they all think they are dying. Very few places in the commoner sections have A/C. Thank God our hotel has it and so does our car. We went out for dinner tonight and it is just brutal. So humid and HOT. But we found a lovely little restaurant/bar owned by a brother and sister and it was loaded with patrons so we decided that it must be good and it was. Don had the steak tartare (ick!!) and I had the best omelet I’ve ever had in my life. They didn’t want to serve him the steak tartare because they thought he didn’t know what it was and they didn’t know how to say that it was raw but when we explained that he REALLY has a streak of cannibal in him, out it came.
We are beat and so it’s off to bed. Tomorrow Versailles.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Getting Ready
The time to leave is almost upon us and we are both getting excited. It seems like this has been in the planning stages for so long that we were never going to actually go but now it is only 4 days away!! Tomorrow I will do the final laundry and will start to think about what we will take. We've collected a ton of books and I KNOW that we will not be able to take them all. Our plan is to take two darry on bags and one large suitcase and that's it. The large suitcase will carry our heavy coats, my cosmetic bag and Don's dopp kit and books. All our clothes will go into the small carry on's. Hm-m-m!! That is the plan!! I'll let you know if we actually can do this!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)